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Industrial Mineral
Background Paper #16
Barite and
Fluorspar
in Ontario:
Resources and
Options for
Production
By:
Kilborn Limited
and
Mineral Development
Section
Ministry of Northern
Development and Mines
1991
Ministry of
Northern Development
Ontario and Mines
1991 Queen's Printer for Ontario
Printed in Ontario, Canada
ISSN 0228-7811; 16
ISBN 0-7729-8583-9
Publications of the Ontario Ministry of Northern Develop
ment and Mines are available from the following sources.
Orders for publications should be accompanied by cheque or
money order payable to the Treasurer of Ontario.
Reports, maps and price lists (personal shopping or
mail order):
Public Information Centre, Ministry of Natural
Resources
Room 1640, Whitney Block, Queen's Park,
Toronto, Ontario M7A 1W3
Reports and accompanying maps only (personal shopping):
Publications Ontario
Main Floor, 880 Bay Street
Toronto, Ontario M7A 1N8
Reports and accompanying maps (mail order or telephone
orders):
Publications Services Section, Ministry of
Government Services
5th Floor, 880 Bay Street
Toronto, Ontario M7A 1N8
Telephone (local calls), 965-6015
Toll-free long distance, 1-800-268-7540
Toll free from area code 807, O-ZENITH-67200
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Main entry under title: Barite and Fluorspar
(Industrial mineral background paper,
ISSN 0228-7811; 16)
ISBN 0-7729-8583-9
Parts of this publication may be quoted if credit is given. It
is recommended that reference to this report be made in the
following form:
Kilborn Limited and Mineral Development Section, Min
istry of Northern Development and Mines 1991: Barite
and Fluorspar in Ontario, Resources and Options for Pro
duction; Ontario Ministry of Northern Development and
Mines, Industrial Mineral Background Paper 16, 83p.
Cover photo inset:
Specimens of banded white barite from Hemlo and green
fluorspar from Madoc, Ontario; barite and fluorspar are val
ued industrial minerals in chemical manufacturing.
Note: This paper does not represent official policy and the
views expressed herein are not necessarily the viewpoint of
the Government of Ontario. The authors represent that they
have followed standard procedures in preparing the evalu
ation in the Report, but the Report is based in part on details,
information and assumptions provided by others and the
authors, therefore, cannot guarantee the correctness of the
Report; but to the extent of its investigation and within, the
scope of the work delegated to it, the authors believe that the
Report is substantially correct.
Barite and Fluorspar in Ontario
Table of
Contents
Summary .........................................5
1. General Introduction ...................9
Terms of Reference ..........................................9
Methodology....................................................9
2. Barite and Fluorspar Resources
in Ontario...................................! l
Introduction ...................................................11
Mineral Descriptions ......................................11
Previous Studies.............................................l3
History of Production.....................................14
Occurrences in Northwestern Ontario..............15
Occurrences in Northeastern Ontario...............22
Occurrences in Southeastern Ontario...............25
Commentary...................................................29
3. Options for Barite Mineral
Production..................................31
Existing Production........................................31
Production Options.........................................31
Production Costs ............................................35
4. Options for Barium Chemicals
Production..................................41
Production Options.........................................41
Production Costs ............................................57
5. Options for Fluorspar
Production..................................61
Production Options.........................................61
Specifications ................................................62
Production Costs ............................................64
6. Implications for Small Mines ......65
Custom Milling ..............................................65
By-Product Recovery .....................................66
7. Conclusions and
Recommendations.....................69
Conclusions ...................................................69
Recommendations ..........................................70
Selected Bibliography ...................71
Resources ......................................................71
Options for Production ...................................73
Appendices.......................................
A.
B.
C.
Barite Mill Processing Equipment ...........75
Major Items and Typical Costs...........76
Barium Chemicals Plant Equipment.........77
Major Items and Typical Costs...........78
Fluorspar Mill Processing Equipment
Major Items and Typical Costs...........81
Barite and Fluorspar in Ontario
Summary
The prime objective of the study was to evaluate the
technical and economic potential of barium chemicals
and high quality fluorspar (fluorite) in Ontario based
on small mining operations, by-product mineral recov
ery, custom mineral processing and established/
emerging chemicals production technologies.
There are numerous recorded occurrences of barite
and/or fluorspar throughout Ontario. Up to 1961, the
province was a producer of fluorspar from shallow
workings in vein deposits in Southeastern Ontario;
barite has been extracted from several veins, principally
in Northern Ontario, for periods dating back to the last
century. Further exploration of these occurrences, to
investigate the possibilities of economic reserves, have
rarely been carried out. The present-day viability of
working small deposits for specialty markets has been
successfully demonstrated by the province's current
producer of barite in Northeastern Ontario.
Metals exploration programs in recent years have
led to the incidental discovery of significant deposits
of these industrial minerals in terms of volume, for
example, that of stratiform barite in the Hemlo gold
belt, and of fluorspar in the SpringpoleLake alkalic
igneous complex, both in Northern Ontario. Such dis
coveries encourage the view that concentrations of
potential interest remain to be identified by explorationists in the province.
Barite
A review of barite mineral resources in the province
of Ontario revealed that mineral deposits of Northern
Ontario in the Thunder Bay area and the Matachewan
area or by-product barite contained in gold mill tailings
from Hemlo area mining operations could potentially
support the production of 15,000 to 30,000 tonnes per
year of high grade barite (94*2fc BaSO4, minimum). A
central processing mill treating ore from one or more
mining locations would be required in order to produce
30,000 tonnes per year of barite in either mineral deposit
area (Thunder Bay or Matachewan), whereas, a single
processing mill could produce the required tonnage of
barite from a portion of the Hemlo area gold mill
tailings.
Capital requirements and total production costs for
the production of barite depend on the location of the
processing mill or mills, the quantity of barite being
produced and the grade of the barite ore/gold mill tail
ings material and are shown in Table l.
The total production costs include all direct oper
ating costs, capital recovery charges and product
shipping charges to a barium chemicals plant in the
Thunder Bay area (for the Thunder Bay and Hemlo
mill locations) or in a central Ontario location closer
Summary
Table l
Capital Requirements and Productions Costs for Various Mill Locations
Mill Capacity,
Capital Cost
Total Production Cost,
Mill Location
t/a
S
S/t Barite
Thunder Bay
30,000
15,000
3,000,000
3,000,000
108
151
Matachewan
30,000
15,000
3,000,000
3,000,000
213
274
Hemlo
30,000
8,400,000
180
to the barium chemicals markets (for the Matachewan
and twin mill locations).
The indicated price of S108 per tonne for 30,000
tonnes per year of barite from a single Thunder Bay
mill is considered to be optimistic as established barite
reserves in the area may not be sufficient to support
the 30,000 tonnes per year operation. A more realis
tic price to consider for 30,000 tonnes per year of
barite is 5180 to S210 per tonne, based either on the
recovery of barite from Hemlo area gold mill tailings
or on its production in twin 15,000 tonnes per year
mills in the Thunder Bay and Matachewan areas, with
barite being shipped to a centrally located chemicals
plant. All costs developed in this study must be con
sidered preliminary as they are based on a minimum
level of information concerning mineral deposits, met
allurgical testing and processing options.
Employment opportunities would be created with the
introduction of a new barite mining and milling oper
ation in Ontario. The number of jobs created depends
on the barite mill location, the mill capacity and the
type of operation and are shown in Table 2.
Additional job opportunities would be created in
the Thunder Bay and Matachewan cases for contract
mining of the barite ore.
Barium Chemicals
An investigation of potential market opportunities
for barium chemicals resulted in an evaluation of the
technical and economic potential of producing barium
sulphide (BaS), barium carbonate(BaCO3), barium
chloride (BaCh), barium sulphate (BaSCU), barium
oxide (BaO) and barium hydroxide (Ba(OH)2) in an
integrated chemicals complex capable of processing
30,000 tonnes per year of barite:
* BaS 20,000 tonnes per year, primarily for cap
tive use but with up to 4,400 tonnes per year
available for sale
* BaCOs
16,000 tonnes per year capacity, with
normal production rates of 12,000 tonnes per year
for sale and l ,950 tonnes per year for captive use
(BaO production)
* BaCh
5,000 tonnes per year capacity, with a
normal operating rate of 3,500 tonnes per year
* BaSO4
l ,500 tonnes per year capacity, with a
normal production rate of l ,000 tonnes per year.
Table 2
Job Creation for Various Mill Locations
Mill Capacity,
Mill Location
t/a
Estimated
Job Creation
Thunder Bay
30,000
15,000
14
11
Matachewan
30,000
15,000
15
30,000
17
Hemlo
12
Barite and Fluorspar in Ontario
Table 3
Capital and Production Costs for Various Barium Chemicals
Plant Gate Production
Cost, S/tonne
Capital Cost,
Barite @
Barite @
Chemical
S million
SlOS/t
Sl80-2107t
BaS
BaCOa
BaCI 2
BaSO4
BaO
Ba(OH) 2
Monohydrate
Octahydrate
11
7
4.8
1.6
4.6
413
592
1098
1085
1890
520-565
685-725
1185-1220
1165-1200
2010-2060
-
1535
920
1635-1675
980-1000
Capital Cost
Total Facility
29
* BaO and Ba(OH)2
3,000 tonnes per year BaO
capacity, with a normal operating rate of 1,500
tonnes per year BaO equivalent, as barium oxide
and hydroxides.
The precursor of most barium chemicals is BaS
including, BaCOs, BaCh, and BaSO4. Barium car
bonate is used as the raw material in the production of
BaO7Ba(OH)2.
Capital costs and plant gate production costs for
the barium chemicals depend on the chemical being
produced, the cost of raw materials and the plant capac
ity illustrated in Table 3.
Sodium sulphide (Na2S) is produced as a by-prod
uct during the production of BaCOa, BaCh and BaSO4.
It is recovered for sale to the pulp and paper industry
as a substitute for NaiSO4 in Kraft pulp mills. Based
on an analysis of reported market prices for barium
chemicals (Law, Sigurdson and Associates, SRI Inter
national 1989), it appears that the production of barium
sulphide, barium carbonate and, possibly, barium sul
phate offers reasonable technical and economic
potential provided that low-cost barite can be delivered
to the barium chemicals plant and that their reported
market prices are realistic for large quantity sales
(Table 4).
The above cost for BaSO4 is based on its production
in a multi-product plant capable of producing BaCOs
and BaSO4 in blocked operation. Earlier costs, S l,085
to S l,200 per tonne, were based on production in a
dedicated process unit.
The production of BaCh, BaO and Ba(OHh does
not appear to have any significant economic poten
tial as indicated production costs. (Table 5) are well in
excess of reported market values.
Employment opportunities would be created with the
production of barium chemicals in Ontario. An esti
mated operations, maintenance and administration
staff of 38 personnel would be required for a barium
Table 4
Production Costs and Market Value for some Barium Chemicals
Estimated Production
Reported Market
Chemical
Cost, S/tonneValue,
S/tonne
BaS
413-565
N/A
BaCI2
592-725
550-800
BaSCU
815-930
800
Summary
Table 5
Production Cost and Market Value for Barium Chemicals
Estimated Production
Chemical
Cost, S/tonne
Reported Market
Value, S/tonne
BaCI 2
BaO
1098-1220
1890-2060
500-840
N/A
Ba(OH) 2
Monohydrate
Octahydrate
1535-1675
920-1000
1100-1200
N/A
chemicals plant capable of producing BaS, BaCOs and
BaSO4. Additional staff would be required to market
the barium chemicals in Canada and the Eastern Unit
ed States.
Fluorspar
A review of fluorspar reserves in the Madoc area of
South-Eastern Ontario indicated that local mineral
deposits could possibly support the production of
15,000 tonnes per year of acid grade fluorspar (97*36
CaFz, minimum) or 20,000 tonnes per year of metal
lurgical grade fluorspar (709fc CaFi).
Capital requirements and total production costs for
the production of fluorspar depend on the mill location,
the ore grade and the quantity and grade of fluorspar
being produced (See Table 6).
Low shipping costs for these materials to Ontariobased consumers should overcome the probable lower
production costs of major suppliers of imported
material, making the Ontario-produced product econo
mically attractive. Total imports into Canada amounted
to 194,000 tonnes of all grades in 1988, thus the iden
tified market potential.
Employment opportunities would be created with the
introduction of a fluorspar mining and milling opera
tion in Ontario. An estimated staff of 14 personnel
would be required for the fluorspar milling operation,
plus additional contract mining jobs.
Recommendations
Before serious consideration can be given to the
development of barite and fluorspar reserves in Ontario
and the production of barium chemicals (to take advan
tage of potential market opportunities in Canada and
the Eastern United States) additional work should be
undertaken to establish the reliability of the most
attractive options.
1. Base level proven and probable reserves should
be established.
2. Representative ore samples should be tested to
develop cost effective metallurgical process
ing routes. Potential mine and processing mill
locations should be examined and feasibility
studies should be conducted to assess select
ed mineral processing options and costs.
3. Market opportunities for barium chemicals
should be clearly defined, potential chemical
plant locations should be examined and a
detailed feasibility study should be complet
ed to assess selected barium chemicals
production options and costs.
Table 6
Capital requirements and production costs for acid and metallurgical grade fluorspar
Total
Fluorspar
Mill Capacity,
Capital Cost,
Production Cost,
t/a
S/tonne
Grade
S
Acid
15,000
3,800,000
198
Metallurgical
20,000
2,000,000
90
Barite and Fluorspar in Ontario
1.General
Introduction
This study was commissioned by the Mineral Devel
opment and Lands Branch of the Ontario Ministry of
Northern Development and Mines as an extension of
a study previously completed for the Ministry by Law,
Sigurdson and Associates and SRI International (1989).
The earlier study identified chemical derivatives of
barite and fluorspar as two of the potential commer
cial opportunities in Ontario on the basis of market
opportunity, mineral resource potential and existing
industrial service infrastructure.
This document is based on a study report received
in March 1990 from Kilborn Limited. The second
chapter
Barite and Fluorspar Resources in Ontario
is a literature review by the Mineral Development
Section of the Ministry of Northern Development and
Mines and is an edited version of an internal report by
D.M. Conrod of the Section.
Funding was provided by the Economic Develop
ment Program of the Canada-Ontario 1985 Mineral
Development Agreement (COMDA). COMDA was a
subsidiary agreement to the Economic and Regional
Development Agreement (ERDA) signed by the Gov
ernments of Ontario and Canada in 1984.
Terms of Reference
The principal objective of the study was to evalu
ate the technical and economic potential for the
production of barium chemicals and high quality
fluorspar in Ontario based on small mining opera
tions, by-product mineral recovery, custom mineral
processing and existing or emerging chemicals pro
duction technologies. Barite and fluorspar mineral
supply options were to consider resource development
in Northern and Eastern Ontario, by-product mineral
recovery and mineral processing required to produce
high quality barite (94^o BaSO4) and metallurgical
grade or acid grade fluorspar (6096 and 979fc CaF2,
respectively). Barium chemical production options
were to include BaS, the precursor of most barium
chemicals; a number of the high demand derivatives,
BaCOs and BaCh; and additional secondary deriva
tives, BaSO4, BaO, barium peroxide (BaOz), barium
hydroxide (Ba(OH)2), barium nitrate (Ba(NOz)2) etc.
Methodology
The initial activity in the study was the collection
and review of available information on barite and
fluorspar mineral resources in Ontario, mineral recov
ery techniques and barium chemical production
methods and costs. The major activities in completing
the study were:
Introduction
1.Review of barite and fluorspar mineral
resources in Ontario, by-product barite or
fluorspar recovery possibilities.
2. Evaluation and selection of potential recovery
methods for barite and fluorspar minerals,
development of preliminary production costs.
3. Selection of barium chemicals to be studied.
4. Evaluation and selection of production meth
ods for barium chemicals, development of
preliminary production costs.
Barite and fluorspar mineral resources in Ontario
were reviewed in order to determine the potential for
commercial production at rates in the range of 30,000
tonnes per year barite (to support a commercial scale
barium chemicals operation) and 10,000 to 15,000
tonnes per year of metallurgical grade or acid grade
fluorspar. Consideration was given to the develop
ment of mineral resources, the recovery of by-product
barite from gold mill tailings, the potential joint recov
ery of barite and fluorspar, the development of a
number of small mineral deposits to meet the target
production rates and the possible expansion of exist
ing barite production facilities.
Based on the results of the resource review, pro
cessing steps required to recover high quality barite
and acid grade or metallurgical grade fluorspar from
open pit or underground mining operations and gold
mill tailings were assessed and appropriate processing
schemes were developed. This was followed by the
development of preliminary capital cost and produc
tion cost estimates for each recovery option. In all
cases that involved the processing of mineral reserves,
the concept of an area processing plant being supplied
with barite or fluorspar ore from several small mines
in the vicinity of the plant was considered.
Production costs for the alternative processing
schemes were compared and the processing routes
showing the greatest economic potential were select
ed. High quality barite was considered as the raw
material for the manufacture of a variety of barium
chemicals, whereas, fluorspar (acid grade or metal
lurgical grade) was assessed on the basis of competitive
sales in Ontario, other regions of Canada and the East
ern United States.
Potential opportunities for marketing barium chem
icals in Canada and the Eastern United States were
reviewed in order to select the barium chemicals
included in the study, consisting of barium sulphide,
the high demand derivatives barium carbonate and
barium chloride, and additional secondary derivatives.
This was followed by a review and selection of pro
duction alternatives for the barium chemicals,
including established and emerging technologies and
10
processes that co-produced valuable by-product chem
icals. The possibility of producing multiple chemicals
in a single production facility in blocked operation
was considered, particularly for the lower demand
derivatives.
Simplified flow plans and overall material balances
were developed for the production of commercial quan
tities of the selected barium chemicals, based on
processing 30,000 tonnes per year of high quality
barite (949fc BaSO-O from a Northern or Eastern Ontario
ore processing plant. Preliminary capital cost and pro
duction cost estimates were developed for each barium
chemical, taking into account appropriate credits for
the sale of by-product chemicals. Blocked operation for
the production of multiple chemicals in a single facil
ity was evaluated, where practical, in order to lower
the production costs of low demand secondary
chemicals.
Production costs were compared to current market
prices for the individual barium chemicals to determine
their economic potential. Marketing of barium chem
icals in Canada and the Eastern United States is
considered to be a potential commercial opportunity as
there is no Canadian production and only limited U.S.
production.
In this study report, all costs are expressed in 1990
Canadian dollars. All tonnage values are metric tonnes
unless otherwise noted. Additionally, fluorspar is used
to describe the mineral fluorite as well as the metal
lurgical grade or acid grade product fluorspar.
Barite and Fluorspar in Ontario
2. Barite and
Fluorspar
Resources in
Ontario
Introduction
Ontario, currently, has one small producer of barite.
The province is a past producer of fluorspar; mining
was discontinued in 1961.
The geological literature records over 300 occur
rences of barite and/or fluorspar throughout the
province, ranging from showings of interest only to the
collector through to deposits of significant potential
tonnage, such as those of the Hemlo area (barite) and
the Red Lake area (fluorspar) in Northern Ontario.
Most of the occurrences are narrow veins or fine dis
seminations within a variety of host rocks of various
geological ages. While the majority of the veins are
small and often discontinuous, many are of good insitu grade.
Fluorspar and barite are often found together, with
many of the occurrences in Ontario being concentrat
ed in local areas; for example, 71 occurrences are
located along two zones in the Thunder Bay area, 46
occurrences are reports in the Madoc-Moira Lake area
and 28 occurrences are noted in the contiguous town
ships of Cardiff and Monmouth.
The only known stratiform barite deposit in Ontario
is found in the gold ore zone of the Hemlo belt in
Northern Ontario, and it also represents the largest
barite occurrence in the province.
The summary of mineral resources in the following
pages includes brief descriptions of selected principal
occurrences. Map l is an index to the location maps
for regions and districts of Ontario with occurrences
of barite and fluorspar. Further details on specific
occurrences in the province can be obtained from the
references cited at the end of Part One and also by
referring to the appropriate files in the offices of the
Resident Geologists of the Ministry of Northern Devel
opment and Mines.
Mineral Descriptions
Fluorspar
Fluorspar (CaF2), also known as fluorite, fluor, Blue
John or Derbyshire spar, is the principal ore of fluo
rine. Fluorspar is used as a flux, in the manufacture of
hydrofluoric acid, in the preparation of glass and enam
els and for carved ornaments.
Fluorspar is a transparent to translucent mineral
that crystallizes in either fine-grained aggregates or as
coarse, individual crystals.
Pure fluorspar consists of Sl.33% calcium and
48.669k fluorine by weight. Deer et al. (1980), state
that most natural fluorspar is at least 999fc CaFi, with
Barite and Fluorspar Resources in Ontario
11
MAP 1. Index to Location Maps of Barite and Fluorspar Occurrences in Ontario.
12
Barite and Fluorspar in Ontario
minor amounts of silicon, aluminium and magnesium
as impurities or inclusions within the fluorspar struc
ture. Strontium, yttrium and the rare earth elements
may replace a small portion of the calcium in fluorspar.
Fluorspar is a relatively soft mineral, having a hard
ness of four on the Mohs' scale. The refractive index
of fluorspar varies between 1.433 and 1.435. The spe
cific gravity of fluorspar ranges from 3.0 to 3.6 in
massive finely crystalline varieties, while individual
coarse crystals have a specific gravity of 3.2.
Fluorescence, a phenomenon which derives its name
from fluorspar, is often strong and has been correlat
ed to high contents of the rare-earths lanthanum,
europium and cesium, (Deer et al. 1980). Yttrium and
samarium may also play a role in the fluorescence of
green fluorspar.
Natural fluorspar occurs in a wide range of colours.
The presence of impurities within the crystal lattice,
including the rare-earth elements (REEs), oxygen,
hydrogen, water vapour, as well as the presence of
colloidal particles, variations in the growth rate of the
crystals, variations in pressure during and after crys
tal formation and exposure to light all contribute to the
colour of fluorspar. (Naldrett et al. 1987) Although
the intensity of coloration increases with an increase
in the REE content, there is no apparent association
between the presence of a particular REE and the
colour of the fluorspar.
Barite
Barite (BaSO-O, also termed barytes, heavy spar or
cawk, is the principal ore of barium. It is chiefly used
in drilling muds and is an important ingredient in
paint, paper and textile manufacture.
Barite is colourless or white and displays a vitreous
to resinous lustre. The presence of impurities, includ
ing iron oxides and hydroxides, sulphides, and organic
matter give barite a yellow, red or brown colour.
Pure barite contains 58.84 weight 9fc barium. Most
barite is pure BaSO4; however, barium can be replaced
by strontium in a continuous solid solution series from
barite to celestite (SrSO4). Lead and calcium can occa
sionally replace barium within the crystal structure
(Deer et al. 1980). The high specific gravity of approx
imately 4.5 is a feature of the mineral; this increases
or decreases with the substitution of lead or strontium
respectively for barium.
Natural barite is usually found as well-formed tabu
lar crystals in the orthorhombic system or as fine-grained
aggregates occurring in globular, fibrous, lamellar or
granular arrangements. Platy crystals, arranged in clus
ters, are often given the name of "desert rose."
Barite and Fluorspar Resources in Ontario
The hardness of barite ranges between 2.5 and 3.5
on the Mohs' scale.
Previous Studies
A number of papers concerning Ontario fluorspar
and its products were published between the early
1940's and early 1960's, corresponding to the rela
tively high production of fluorspar during that period.
Guillet (1963) provided a detailed historical and geo
logical compilation of barite occurrences in Ontario.
The same author also published detailed historical and
geological data for fluorspar in the Madoc-Moira Lake
area (Guillet 1964).
A program of drilling, bulk sampling and benefi
ciation tests was carried out between 1941 and 1951
by the Geological Survey of Canada to evaluate the
Madoc area's fluorspar resources at the former
fluorspar-producing properties. Drilling results are
summarized in Guillet (1964).
Detailed mineralogical and petrological studies of
the Madoc ores were undertaken by Rupert (1963) and
Mielke (1977). Rupert, through fluid inclusion anal
yses, determined that the ores were precipitated from
several generations of solutions, ranging in tempera
ture from 103 0 to 148 0C. Mielke concluded that at
least seven periods of fault activity and associated
low temperature and low pressure hydrothermal min
eralization can be recognized in the Rogers mine. Two
sulphosalts, boulangerite and semseyite, were recog
nized with galena in the ore. Mielke concludes that
these minerals grew from relatively cool dilute alkalirich solutions.
Lalonde (1974) undertook a geochemical study of
the secondary dispersion of fluorine in the MadocMoira Lake area, and concluded that most of the rocks
within the area are enriched in fluorine. The fluorine
content of groundwater was found to delineate areas
of known fluorspar concentration.
A number of geophysical surveys were undertaken
in the immediate Moira Lake area by Thompson and
Williams between the years 1985 and 1990. These
studies involved seismic, magnetic, resistivity, radio
activity and alpha meter surveys along six transects in
an attempt to locate unknown faults and the exten
sions of known faults which may contain vein material.
Thompson and Williams (1989) have recently com
bined their geophysical and structural studies of the
area with the results of Lalonde's 1974 geochemical
survey to locate potential ore targets. High concen
trations of fluorine tend to fall along known or inferred
faults in the area or at fault junctions.
A recent detailed mapping and geochemical soil
13
survey was undertaken in the Moira Lake area by Der
ry, Michener, Booth and Wahl in 1989 (Dickson and
Trinder 1989). The survey resulted in the recognition
of several coincident fluorite-barite-zinc target
anomalies.
Summary compilations of fluorspar and barite
occurrences in Ontario are provided by Vos et al.
(1983) for Northern Ontario and Martin (1983) for
the Algonquin Region.
Several studies of the barite located in the Hemlo
area have been undertaken during the last six years.
Roach (1987) carried out a petrological study of the
Western Barite Occurrences located approximately
25 km west of Hemlo. He concluded that the occur
rences were located in zones of heterogeneous ductile
shear and that the barite-sulfide mineralization
occurred before or during the ductile shearing event.
Gliddon (1985) undertook a petrological study of the
barite at Hemlo, concluding that the deposit is most
likely syngenetic in origin. Later studies of the deposit
by Valliant and Bradbrook (1986) and Walford et al.
(1986), however, suggest that the deposit may be epi
genetic in origin. The question of origin is still to be
settled.
Fluorspar and barite mineral collecting sites in
Ontario are documented in a series of publications by
Sabina(1963, 1969, 1971, 1976, 1983, 1986, 1987).
Petrological research and mapping to date of the
Springpole Lake alkalic carbonatite complex and its
associated fluorspar mineralization has been reported
by Barron et al. (1989).
In addition to these studies, information concerning
specific properties are available in the Ministry of
Northern Development and Mines Assessment Files.
History of Production
Fluorspar
Between 1905 and 1961, 121,919 tons of fluorspar,
mostly of metallurgical grade, were shipped from
mines in the southeastern part of the province. Much
of this production was achieved in response to wartime
demand, as shown in Table 7.
The dominant fluorspar-producing area in Ontario
has been in the Madoc area, where over 30 workings
were recorded. Five properties, Rogers, Bailey, Noyes,
Kilpatrick and Perry mines, accounted for 939fc of
Ontario's recorded shipments. The principal produc
er was the Rogers mine, which yielded a total of 45,000
tons, including 40,000 tons within a nine-year period.
Only 129 tons of fluorspar shipments were record
ed from Cardiff Township from the Dwyer, Clarke and
14
Table 7
Fluorspar Production in Ontario
(Modified after Guillet 1964)
Period
Shipments (tons)
1905-1911
1916-1920
1921-1939
1940-1951
1952-1961
44
19,936
1,754
86,543
13,642
Tripp mines. There has been no fluorspar production
in Ontario since 1961.
Mining in the Madoc area was carried out by small
independent operators and only the pure, easily-sort
ed fluorspar was recovered. There was no mill for
separation of the fluorspar in the banded calcite-baritefluorspar portions of the veins. The mine-run ore was
usually crushed and run over a picking belt where
most of the lump fluorspar was recovered. This highgrade material was diluted with some of the
calcite-fluorite-barite fines to ship 7096 CaFz metal
lurgical grade. Mining was limited to shallow depths
(110 m or less) because of heavy water flows, which
the small mines did not have the equipment to control.
When fluorspar production ceased in the Madoc area,
an undetermined amount of ore remained at the bottom
of the Rogers, Kilpatrick, Perry Lake, Perry and Blakely mines, with vein widths reported of between 1.0
and 1.6 m.
Barite
Between 1885 and 1948, 9,899 tons of barite were
shipped from Ontario operations. This ore was extract
ed by surface mining of high-grade veins by manual
methods, including hand-cobbing, at McKellar Island
(Thunder Bay area), Langmuir Township and Penhor
wood Township in northern Ontario and in North
Burgess Township in the southeastern part of the
province.
There is only one current producer of barite in the
province. Extender Minerals of Canada Ltd. began
operations in 1967 and has produced approximately
200,000 tons of barite since that date from a number
of veins in the Matachewan area of northeastern
Ontario. Ore is extracted from four sub-parallel veins
in Yarrow Township, one vein in Penhorwood Town
ship and one vein in Cairo Township. Production from
a vein deposit in North Williams Township, in the
Shining Tree Area, is expected to commence in 1991.
Barite and Fluorspar in Ontario
After originally being worked from surface, the
veins are now mined by Extender Minerals by under
ground methods, producing a total of approximately
25,000 short tons of ore per annum grading 50 to 609fc
BaSO4 prior to treatment. The barite ore is partially
upgraded at the mines sites and then trucked to a treat
ment plant in Matachewan. The ore is dried and finely
ground to -45 jim at the plant; the product, grading 93
to 979k BaSCU, is bagged for sale in mineral filler
markets.
Table 8 summarizes barite production in Ontario
to the present day.
Table 8
Barite Production in Ontario
(Modified after Guillet, 1963)
Period
Shipments (tons)
1885-1887
1888-1890
1892
1894
1918-1948
1976-present
4,564
2,942
315
1,081
995
200,000 est.
Occurrences in
Northwestern Ontario
Barite and fluorspar occurrences are concentrated
along two fault zones west of Thunder Bay and along
the Archean-Proterozoic unconformity in the Dorion
area. Another concentration of barite veins is found in
the Mazokama Bay area near Nipigon. The most sig
nificant known deposit of barite, in terms of tonnage,
is the stratiform occurrence in the Hemlo Belt east of
Marathon.
Fluorspar locations are documented near Rossport,
Lake of the Woods, Sturgeon Lake (northeast of
Ignace) and also in association with quartz-molyb
denite veins at other properties. The largest occurrence
of fluorspar to date is reported within the Springpole
Lake carbonatite near Red Lake.
The occurrences in Northwestern Ontario are shown
in Map 2.
Thunder Bay
Dorion Area
Barite/Minor Fluorspar
Calcite and barite are the major constituents of two
parallel, northeasterly-trending zones in the Thunder
Bay Area. The presence of fluorspar appears to be
largely restricted to the northern system. The veins
of both zones contain minor amounts of silver that
was recovered in the latter part of the 18th century. The
Dorion area is characterized by a number of lead and
zinc-bearing barite veins of similar orientation to that
of the northern vein-fault system of the Thunder Bay
area.
Occurrences in the Thunder Bay and Dorion areas
are located in Map 3.
Northern Vein System:
Thunder Bay Area
The northern vein system trends 067 0 and is gen
erally vertically-oriented. It has, however, been
documented to dip steeply to the north in some loca
tions and steeply to the south in others. The veins
occupy faults that cut the Logan diabase sills and mid
dle Precambrian sedimentary rocks of the area. The
being material consists of calcite, quartz, fluorspar,
barite, minor disseminated sulphides (including pyrite,
galena, sphalerite and chalcopyrite), as well as native
silver and argentite. The vein material acts as a frac
ture in-fill, cementing pieces of the country rock within
the fault zone.
Although most of the individual veins and faults
that comprise the system are approximately l m wide,
some veins such as those located on the Rabbit Moun-
Barite and Fluorspar Resources in Ontario
15
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16
Barite and Fluorspar in Ontario
Barite and Fluorspar Resources in Ontario
17
tain, Neepatyre, and the Paresseux Rapids properties
are up to 6 m wide.
Calcite within the veins is usually coarsely crys
talline and white or occasionally pink in colour. The
green and purple varieties of fluorspar occur individ
ually or inter-banded within the veins. Yellow fluorspar
is less common, but is reported to occur at the past-pro
ducing Federal Mine. Often the fluorspar surrounds
calcite in a colloform texture. Quartz is ubiquitous in
the veins that comprise the system occurring in trans
parent, white, smoky, amethyst, and rose varieties.
The barite is generally white and coarsely crystalline.
Sulphides are disseminated throughout the vein
material. Native silver occurs in fern-like and wire
forms, while argentite occurs as films, sheets, and sol
id nuggets up to several ounces in weight.
Recent trenching and drilling has been undertaken
in O'Connor Township on the McDermott-Cox barite
showing (mining location: T144). The vein-fault zone
can be traced on surface for approximately 450 m,
and varies in width from 1.5 to 9 m. The vein consists
of barite, calcite, amethyst, white quartz and fluorspar,
with minor amounts of galena sphalerite. Barite com
prises 20 to 609fc of the vein material, while calcite
accounts for between 10 and 209fc and quartz accounts
for between 30 and 409fc. At the McDermott-Cox show
ing, the vein dips steeply to the north; however, on the
adjoining property, mining location T143, the vein is
reported to dip between 500 and 75 0 southeast (Tan
ton 1931).
The vein is exposed over a length of 46m with an
average width of 1.5 m on the adjacent T143 proper
ty. Tanton (1931), reports that the vein consists of
coarsely crystalline, platy barite, white calcite, and
quartz, with small amounts of green fluorspar and
minor disseminated galena. Barite accounts for approx
imately one-third of the vein material and occurs in
close spatial association to the calcite. At both the
McDermott-Cox and T143 properties, the host rock
is Animikie banded and oolitic iron formation, shale,
and volcanic lapilli and ash tuff (Tanton 1931). The
pinching and swelling of the vein and the varying pro
portions of vein minerals along strike make estimates
of tonnage and grades difficult.
The largest vein widths recorded in the area are
located on the Silver Mountain, Rabbit Mountain,
Neepatyre, Paresseux Rapids, Federal, Silver Falls,
Woodside and Star properties. These are scattered
along the strike of the northern zone and are probably
a reflection of the "pinch-and-swell" nature of the
vein system.
18
Southern Vein System:
Thunder Bay Area
There are sixteen barite occurrences that comprise
the southern zone and are hosted within the verticallyoriented, north-easterly-trending Pine River-Mount
Mollic gabbroic intrusion. This intrusion contains two
sets of vertically-oriented joints, one trending 135 0
and the other trending 800 . Almost all of the calcitebarite veins that comprise this system strike 315 0 and
are either vertically-oriented or dip moderately to the
northeast. The veins most likely occupy pre-existing
joint fractures.
The veins of this southern zone vary from l m to
over 20 m in thickness and consist predominantly of
calcite and barite, with minor amounts of amethyst,
fluorspar, pyrite, chalcopyrite, galena, sphalerite,
cobaltite, smaltite, tetrahedrite, silver and argentite.
The grades of the veins vary substantially over short
distances, but are generally high, between 84 and 9096
BaSO4 where documented. The Jarvis Island vein
strikes 135 0 and dips 40 0 to 60 0 to the northeast.
Widths vary from 4.5 to 2 m over a distance of 244 m.
At the southeastern end of the vein, it consists of
approximately 809fc calcite, 109fc barite and 1096 quartz.
The northwestern end of the vein consists of approx
imately 509fc barite. Minor amounts of fluorspar are
recorded on the property. In the case of McKellar
Island, the barite vein also strikes 135 0 but is verticaloriented. Widths of the vein vary from 9 to 21 m over
a strike length of 110 m. The vein material consists of
approximately 509fc barite with lesser amounts of cal
cite and quartz.
Dorion Area
Tanton (1931) documented thirty separate leadzinc-barite occurrences with the Dorion area. These
occurrences consist of mineralogically-zoned, lead
and zinc-bearing, calcite-quartz-barite veins, located
along the unconformity separating the Archean Quetico
gneiss belt and Middle Precambrian metasedimentary
rocks of the Gunflint and Rove formations from the
late Precambrian sedimentary rocks of the Sibley
Group. The veins are characterized by a galena-calcite
core, a sphalerite-quartz central zone, and a barite
zone in the vein extremities along strike. The veins are
similar in orientation and width to those of the north
ern vein-fault system in the Thunder Bay area. Franklin
and Mitchell (1977) claimed that these occurrences
constitute a distinct metallogenic entity, confined to the
Sibley Group redbed basin, and that they are clearly
distinguishable from the occurrences that constitute
the northern Thunder Bay vein-fault system.
Barite and Fluorspar in Ontario
Of the thirty occurrences, only the Dorion, Enter
prise and Ogema deposits were mined in the past for
their lead and zinc contents. The veins typically con
sist of quartz, calcite and barite with minor fluorspar
at these mines. The principal sulphide minerals are
galena, sphalerite, pyrite, marcasite, chalcopyrite and
chalcocite.
The vein system at the Dorion deposit comprises
five separate veins extending for approximately
1525 m. The largest single vein is 2.4 m wide and
extends along strike for 244 m. The barite occurs in the
central portion of some veins and as distinct veinlets
cross-cutting other portions of the vein system. Tan
ton (1931) reports one 1.3 m wide vein containing
209fc sphalerite. Brecciated fragments of the wallrock
can account for between 209fc and 80*?fc of the vein.
The Enterprise Mine is hosted within the Sibley
Group sedimentary rocks. The vein system trends 065
to 075 0 , parallel to the Sibley Group-Archean
unconformity. The 15m wide system consists of
approximately 10 cm wide veins, which occupy ver
tical joints within the Rossport formation. Fragments
of wallrock account for less than 209b of the vein
material.
The Ogema Mine is hosted within the Archean
metasedimentary gneisses and pegmatites and con
tains veins that range from 2 to 5 cm in width.
Red Lake Area Fluorspar
The Springpole Lake property is located approxi
mately 110 km northeast of Red Lake, within the Birch
Lake Greenstone Belt, and geologically represents a
small alkaline volcanic centre. Both extrusive and
intrusive rock types, including fluorite-bearing, sovitetype carbonatite bodies, comprise what is referred to
as the Springpole Alkalic Volcanic Complex (Barron
et al. 1989).
Flows and pyroclastic deposits of the complex
unconformably overlie the older Archean metavolcanic rocks of the area, and the complex is overlain by
Temiskaming-type metasedimentary rocks. Porphyritic
syenite and trachyte are the most abundant lithologies of the complex.
The fluorspar-bearing carbonatite intrusion accounts
for only a small portion of the complex. It is exposed
on surface at two locations but Barron et al. (1989)
report a strike length of at least 1.5 km. The carbon
atite is in sharp contrast with the surrounding,
fenitized, country-rock breccias. Fluorspar occurs as
fine disseminations and stringer veinlets within the
carbonatite and adjacent fenitized breccias. In addition
to calcite and fluorite, the carbonatite may also con
tain up to several percent barite and quartz. In the
Barite and Fluorspar Resources in Ontario
exposed portion of the carbonatite, fluorspar averages
10 to 15 volume 9fc of the rock.
The property is currently being investigated by
Noranda Limited and Akiko-Lori Gold Resources Ltd.,
gold is the main mineral of interest. Recent diamond
drilling on the property was reported to have inter
sected significant amounts of fluorspar in several
holes, including one intersection of 32 m (drill width)
averaging 27. 99fc
Sturgeon Lake Area Fluorspar
The Sturgeon Lake area is located 76 km east of
Sioux Lookout, within the Wabigoon Subprovince of
the Canadian Shield. Within the immediate Sturgeon
Lake area, Trowell (1983) has identified three alkalic
complexes and proposes that all three are coeval and
comagmatic.
The Wahl and Texmont properties are located with
the Sturgeon Narrows Complex. Fluorspar occurs as
fine disseminations throughout all rock types of the
complex, accounting for up to 19fc of the rock. Local
concentrations of fluorspar are reported to occur along
a sheared carbonatized zone on Sturgeon Narrows
Island (Trowell 1983). Diamond drilling on the Wahl
property by W.G. Wahl Limited in 1969 intersected
fluorspar mineralization along with minor strontianite
and vanadium mica. Diamond drilling by Selco Explo
ration Company Limited in 1970 did not locate any
significant concentrations of fluorspar. Recent dia
mond drilling by Primrose Gold Resources in the area
in 1989 also has not intersected significant concen
trations of fluorspar. Trowell (1983) documented
concentrations of fluorspar reaching a few percent in
volume occurring along joints in the rocks located
along the south shore of East Bay.
Although the Squaw and Bell Lake Complexes are
similar to the Sturgeon Narrows Complex, Trowell
has not reported the presence of fluorspar or carbon
ate (possibly carbonatite) zones in these two
complexes.
Lake of the Woods Area Fluorspar
Fluorspar on the Thrasher Property occurs within a
quartz-carbonate vein system, 1.3 m in width, that
cuts felsic and lapilli tuff; the deep purple fluorspar
forms fine-grained veinlets. The vein contains up to
159fc fluorspar over short distances; the best intersec
tions obtained in diamond-drilling, undertaken in 1964,
reported visual estimates of 10*?fc to 309fc fluorspar
over 3.5 m.
A geophysical survey, undertaken by Esso Miner
als Canada in 1984, indicated that the fluorspar-bearing
core of the Lobstick Bay shear zone cannot be traced
19
by geophysical techniques, and that the gold-bearing
zone does not outcrop along strike to the east or west
of the main zone (MNDM Assessment Files).
Nipigon-Schreiber Area
Barite/Fluorspar
The Halonen-Cavers Hill fluorspar-barite property
is underlain by an igneous complex composed pre
dominantly of potassic feldspar-rich granite and
granodiorite, cut by quartz-feldspar pegmatite veins
and pods.
In addition to the purple fluorspar coating joint sur
faces of the complex, three fluorspar-barite quartz
veins occupy an easterly-trending breccia zone. Vein
widths range from 1.3 to 18 m (Brown 1973).
The results of a reconnaissance mapping and water
and stream sediment sampling program, undertaken
by Asarco in 1973 (Brown 1973), indicate that the
mineralized breccia zone has a series of isolated
fluorspar showings covering a strike length of 915 m.
Sampling of the vein over widths of 3 m range between
l and 109fc fluorspar with one sample yielding 23.11*70
CaF2 over 3m. The results of the geochemical survey
did not reveal any new fluorspar showings.
Drilling by E. Former in the area in 1982 and 1987
did not reveal any new fluorspar occurrences.
Three mineralized zones occur at the Pays Plat
fluorspar occurrence informally known as the Chishol
Pit Zone, the Main Adit Zone and the Northern Creek
Zone.
The Chishol Pit Zone consists of a one metre wide
quartz-calcite-fluorspar vein that occupies a steeplydipping breccia zone trending 1700 through Archean
granite. The vein contains pyrite, galena and spha
lerite as local sulphide-rich seams.
At the Main Adit Zone, a quartz-fluorspar-calcite
vein occupies a breccia zone within the granite, and
also contains local concentrations of pyrite, chal
copyrite and pyrrhotite. "Narrow" barite veins parallel
the main vein.
A series of quartz veins containing disseminated
to semi-massive pyrite are hosted within the granite
gneiss at the Northern Creek Zone. Stripping and
trenching was undertaken in 1987 and 1988 by Mr.
Peter Moses. Fluorspar is reported to reach concen
trations of up to 159fc of the vein.
A number of barite occurrences are found within the
Nipigon Bay area. The descriptions of these occur
rences are derived from Tanton (1931).
In the northeastern corner of Nipigon Township,
(lot 9, concession 3), barite veins, between 0.3 and
0.5 m in width, trend northeasterly through Archean
granite. These veins dip 800 to the northwest and can
20
be traced for 50 m. The veins consist of approximately
909fc barite, 59fc galena, 4^o sphalerite, 19fc chalcopy
rite and approximately 0.5 ounces per ton silver.
The following five occurrences are grouped in the
Mazokama Bay region, of which the last three are
within 5 km of Ozone Siding.
On claim TB 6038, a calcite vein containing minor
amounts of quartz, amethyst and barite cements a
10 to 13 m wide easterly-trending, shatter zone host
ed within a pegmatitic granite gneiss. This zone dips
steeply to the north. Calcite accounts for approxi
mately 809fc of the vein material.
A vein system, consisting of a network of quartz and
barite veinlets, cements a 3 m wide breccia zone in
trending 003 0 through arenaceous tuff, on claim TB
4588. The vein material consists predominantly of
white quartz, amethyst, white calcite and rose-coloured
barite. Sulphides, including galena, pyrite, chalcopy
rite and sphalerite, account for up to 396 of the rock.
On mining claims TB 3745/TB 4737/TB 3727, a
vein system strikes 165 0 to 1770 through a pegmatiticgranite gneiss. This vein cements a 10 m wide breccia
zone that dips 700 to the north. The system consists of
quartz and barite veins, less than 0.3 m in width.
Where the western extension of this system is exposed,
barite accounts for up to 709fc of the vein material.
White quartz amethyst and approximately 109fc gale
na and sphalerite account for the remainder of the vein
material. Minor chalcopyrite and pyrite occur dis
seminated throughout the vein.
A vein system, trending 087 0 and dipping 700 to
800 south, occupies a fault zone cutting pink tuff of the
Sibley series at mining location TB 4533. The vein
consists of approximately l m of vein material free of
host-rock fragments and l m of brecciated country
rock cemented with vein material. Tanton describes
the vein as consisting of predominantly coarse white
calcite, with lesser amounts of barite, white quartz,
amethyst and purple fluorspar. Sphalerite occurs in
local masses accounting for up to 39fc of the rock. Fine
disseminations of galena occur throughout the calcite.
A solid barite vein of up to 0.6 m is located about
3 km north of Ozone Siding. This vein forms part of
a 3 m wide cemented breccia zone within granitic
gneiss, striking 1000 and dipping 68 0 to the north.
Quartz and sparsely disseminated pyrite occur with
the barite.
Hemlo Area Barite
The Hemlo area barite occurrences represent the
largest known barite deposits in the province, con
taining over 6.5 million tonnes of barite.
The Hemlo area occurrences extend from the Hem-
Barite and Fluorspar in Ontario
lo gold deposit, located 7 km east of the town of Hemlo, to Pic River located 22 km west of the town of
Hemlo, and currently consist of six known barite
deposits, most of which are located on strike with or
form part of the Hemlo gold ore zone. These loca
tions are shown in Map 4.
The area is underlain by a highly deformed Archean
metasedimentary and metavolcanic sequence as well
as Archean granitic rocks.
The barite occurs in massive form or as thin wispy
layers interlayered with recrystallized quartz, albite,
pyrite, molybdenite and carbonaceous material. The
barite horizons range from l to 3 m in thickness.
Accessory minerals include green mica, carbonate,
and magnetite-ilmenite (Gliddon 1985).
Hemlo Gold Deposit
In the Hemlo gold camp, barite is found at the con
tact between metasedimentary rocks and the felsic
crystal tuffs, (Patterson 1984).
At the Williams, Golden Giant and David Bell
mines, the baritic horizon forms part of the gold ore
zone. Reported ore reserves of these deposits, as of
February, 1990, were 34 million tonnes, 17 million
tonnes and 7.1 million tonnes respectively. Friesen et
al. (1985) reported that 10 to 13*26 of the ore zone in
the William mine is barite, totalling approximately
3.4 to 4.4 million tonnes. The baritic portion contains
quartz and minor amounts of pyrite and molybdenite.
Approximately 14*2fc of the ore zone at the Golden
Giant Mine is barite and less than 59fc of the ore at
the David Bell Mine is barite. A total of approximately
6.5 million tonnes of barite is estimated to be in the
ore zone of the three mines.
Western Occurrences: Hemlo Belt
The barite occurrences form a narrow zone appar
ently conformable on a regional scale with the local
stratigraphy, occurring near the contact between the
mafic metavolcanic rocks to the south and intermedi
ate and felsic metavolcanic rocks to the north. The
occurrences strike 095 0 and dips 800 to the south.
The Northern Eagle Mine occurrence is located 15
km west of Hemlo, and consist of a l to 2 m thick
massive barite unit striking 1100 and dipping 800 to the
south. The pale grey to white barite contains thick
carbonate-rich or pyrite-rich layers, which account
for up to 10*fc of the rock. (Patterson, 1984).
Two types of barite are found on the property:
1) massive and predominantly monomineralic, recrys
tallized barite; and 2) laminated to wispy barite
horizons, containing fine-grained pyrite and possibly
PIC TP
Cal Dynamics Energy Corporation
and
Kadrey Energy Corporation
LECOEUR TP
BOMBY TP
MAP 4. Barite Deposits in the Hemlo Area.
Barite and Fluorspar Resources in Ontario
21
carbonaceous material, in dark grey to black streaks.
The wispy to laminated barite horizon consists of lay
ers of barite, quartz-albite and pyrite-barite-carbonate
in gradational contact. These layers are generally less
than 2 to 3 mm thick and have undergone recrystal
lization. Accessory minerals within the laminated
barite horizon include green mica, calcite, magnetiteilmenite and titanite.
The Padre Resources Limited property, located 17
km west of the town of Hemlo consists of a l m wide
barite horizon, containing up to 709fc barite along with
minor amounts of pyrite, quartz, and carbonate (Pat
terson, 1984).
The barite horizon strikes 1100 and dips steeply to
the south. A green mica-schist, stratigraphically locat
ed beneath the barite, contains minor amounts of
fluorspar. Cataclastic zones within the barite horizon
contain fragments of wall rock and lamprophyres.
The massive barite is pale grey to white, fine
grained and displays a sugary texture. The barite occurs
as recrystallized, anhedral aggregates within a fine
grained barite-albite-quartz matrix. Accessory minerals
include pyrite, green mica, carbonate and titanite.
The Rideau Resources property is located 18 km
west of the town of Hemlo. A barite-bearing chert
horizon, intercalated with green mica-schist, strikes
1100 across the property and dips 800 to the south.
Barite occurs along with chert, albite, minor car
bonaceous matter, ankerite, calcite and pyrite as
microcrystalline matrix material in the recrystallized,
3.5 m wide, chert horizon.
The Nexus Resources property, located 13 km west
of the town of Hemlo, contains a 6 m wide, light grey
baritic horizon intercalated with argillaceous metasediments (Mackie 1984).
A 2.8 m wide barite-rich unit outcrops near the
claim boundary between Kadrey Energy Corporation
property and that of the Cal Dynamics Energy Cor
poration, 22 km west of the town of Hemlo. The unit
consists of light grey to white, massive barite, which
grades into minor layers of pyrite-chert-carbonate.
The horizon strikes 085 0 and dips 800 to the south.
Three parallel barite units, up to 3 m in width, are
spatially associated with the sericite-green mica schist
(Patterson 1984).
22
Occurrences in
Northeastern Ontario
Although several minor fluorspar occurrences have
been reported at various sites, the region is best known
for its worked vein deposits of barite; the sole cur
rent producer of barite in the province is located at
Matachewan.
The occurrences of barite and fluorspar are shown
in Map 5.
Yarrow Township Barite
The only currently active barite producer in Ontario
is Extender Minerals Limited in Yarrow Township.
The property consists of four veins, occupying
curved faults hosted within the Gowganda conglom
erates and arkosic sedimentary rocks. These faults
trend in an easterly direction, perpendicular to the
northerly-trending Mistinikon River fault. The veins
consist of approximately 609fc barite with minor con
taminants of quartz, calcite and hematite. The four
veins, referred to as the Southern Vein, Main Vein,
Northern Vein and Creek Vein, are either vertically-ori
ented or dip steeply (greater than 800 ) to the north.
The veins tend to vary in width from less than l m
to 10 m and often pinch out at both depth and dis
tance away from the Mistinikon River fault.
Although much of the Main Vein has been mined,
it originally reached widths up to 10m and extended
along strike for 61 m to a depth of at least 30 m. The
minimum mineable width is currently l m.
Ore is removed from not only the four veins on the
Yarrow Township Property but also from barite veins
within the local area, including the Biederman-Browning Lake vein in Cairo Township and the Tionaga
(Ravena) vein in Penhorwood Township. Removal of
ore from the Tracy Lake vein in North Williams Town
ship is planned in 1991.
Langmuir Township Barite
The former Premier Langmuir Mine is located 32
km southeast of Timmins in Langmuir Township. The
property contains two barite veins hosted within Kee
watin mafic volcanics.
The main vein averages l m in width and strikes
approximately 2900 . Widths up to 2 m are recorded
along the 366 m length of the vein.
A second vein, located 20 m from the first, ranges
in width from l to 2 m over a distance of 24 m. The
vein is approximately 61 m in length.
Both veins are vertically-oriented and consist of
coarsely crystalline barite, calcite, minor quartz and
Barite and Fluorspar in Ontario
Barite and Fluorspar Resources in Ontario
23
fluorite, with traces of galena, sphalerite, chalcopyrite
and native silver.
Sampling by Peerless Canadian Explorations Ltd.
along a 34 m length of the main vein yielded an aver
age grade of 68.99fc BaSCU over a width of l m. Pyke
(1970) reports that 336 tons of ore material per verti
cal foot could be mined, assuming a minimum mining
width of 1.6 m over a length of 183 m at a grade of
559fc BaSO4. An estimate of 250 tons per vertical foot
could be mined from the second vein, at a minimum
mining width of 1.6 m over a distance of 137 m for ore
grading 559fc barite.
Penhorwood Township Barite
The Tionaga deposit in Penhorwood Township is
4.8 km west of Tionaga Station on the C.P.R. Line
north of Capreol. It is also known as the Ravena
deposit. The property is underlain by pink Algoman
granite, which has intruded mafic volcanics and sed
imentary rocks including iron formation.
The main barite vein occurs in a northeasterlytrending vertical fracture, parallel to a weakly
developed joint system within the granite. The vein
reaches widths of up to 5 m, but averages 2 m over a
distance of 30 m. The vein extends over a distance of
approximately 150 m, although the central portion
pinches out on surface.
A second vein located 12m west of the main vein
averages 0.6 to 1.3 m in width.
According to Guillet (1963), the vein consists
almost entirely of barite. The barite is massive, white
and generally fine-grained. Coarsely crystalline barite
occurs scattered throughout the finer-grained matrix.
Contaminants such as calcite and purple fluorspar tend
to be restricted to a 15 cm zone adjacent to the wallrock.
Spence (1922) reports that ten channel samples,
taken across the main vein, average 959fc BaSCM. The
second vein contains 989e BaSO-t. A 472 kg bulk sam
ple analyzed by the St. Joseph Lead Company yielded
96.1496 BaSO4 and t.89% SiO2 .
zone reaching a maximum width of 0.75m. "Small
amounts" of galena, sphalerite and chalcopyrite give
the barite a pinkish colour (Spence 1922). A sample,
representative of the entire vein width, yielded 74.859fc
CaCOa. Another sample, representing 2.5 m across
the vein, assayed 90.509c BaSO4 (Burrows 1918).
Lawson Township Barite
A vertically-oriented lens of barite strikes 75 0
through the Proterozoic Nipissing diabase, 1.7 km
southeast of Longpoint Lake in Lawson Township.
The lens is 18 m in length and 2.5 m in width. Vein
material has been removed along its entire length to a
depth of 2.5 m. The vein strike parallels one of the two
joint directions in the diabase.
Spence (1922) claims that the vein is practically
free of sulphides and fluorite. The vein consists of
both fine and coarsely crystalline barite. Spence reports
a grab sample assaying 98.039c BaSO4, G.70% SrSCu,
and 1.209c CaCOs.
North Williams Township Barite
The Tracy Lake barite property contains two barite
veins trending northeasterly through arkose of the
Lorrain Formation. A trenching programme under
taken in 1977 by Extender Minerals Limited
determined that the "A" vein had a strike length of
228 m while the "B" vein had a strike length of 457 m;
portions of the vein with a width greater than l m
were 137 m and 70 m in length respectively (Ministry
of Northern Development and Mines Assessment
Files). Some portions of the veins are up to 2.4 m in
width. Drilling undertaken in 1977 by Extender Min
erals indicated that the "A" vein dipped 82 0 south.
Assays of 13 samples of vein material between the
year 1975 and 1977 indicated that the content ranged
between 95 and 999c barite, with one sample assaying
68*?fc barite and another sample assaying 899b barite
(Ministry of Northern Development and Mines Assess
ment Files).
Cairo Township Barite
The Biederman deposit in Cairo Township is on the
west shore of Browning Lake, approximately 8 km
northeast of the town of Matachewan. The property is
underlain by a hornblende syenite (Spence 1922).
The vertically-oriented, northwesterly-trending
barite vein reaches a maximum width of 5 m. The vein
can be traced for a distance of approximately 30 m.
Purple fluorspar occurs along the walls of the vein. The
main contaminant is quartz, which occurs as an acces
sory mineral throughout the vein and as a quartz-rich
24
Barite and Fluorspar in Ontario
Occurrences in
Southeastern Ontario
The most numerous fluorspar occurrences in the
province are found in the southeastern region, partic
ularly within Madoc, Huntingdon, Cardiff, Monmouth
and Ross townships.
Many of the barite vein deposits are located in Frontenac, Hastings and Lanark counties. Barite also occurs
in association with some of the Madoc-Moira Lake
fluorspar veins. Much of the barite in the region, how
ever, occurs in relatively thin veins in comparison to
those of the Thunder Bay and Matachewan areas of
Northern Ontario and is not considered in detail in
this section.
Map 6 shows the location of fluorspar and barite
occurrences in southeastern Ontario. Guillet (1963,
1964) provides a detailed description of individual
occurrences.
Madoc-Moira Lake Area
Mining was conducted in the area from 1905 to
1961 and, while no production has occurred since
1961, research into locating additional deposits has
continued sporadically up to the present day. The most
productive fluorspar veins within the province are
located in the Madoc-Moira River area. They occur as
fracture-fillings along two northwesterly-trending fis
sure fault systems covering a distance of approximately
154 km and spanning a width of approximately 5 km.
The veins occur sporadically along both fault systems
(Wilson 1929) as well as along joints and fissures
within the country rock, which have undergone little
movement (Williams and Thompson 1986). Although
most of the fluorspar occurrences are located within the
Palaeozoic limestone, the largest occurrences and most
productive mines were located within the Precambri
an marble and granite.
The vein deposits of the Madoc-Moira Lake area,
and related geochemical/geological data, are shown
in Map 7.
A survey to assess the fluorite potential of the
Madoc and Cardiff Township areas was carried out
between 1941 and 1951 by the Geological Survey of
Canada. This survey involved making evaluations of
the grades of ore remaining at a number of the pastproducing mines in the Madoc area. Programs
undertaken during this survey involved bulk sampling,
diamond drilling and beneficiation testing. The results
of the drilling program on the Keene, Perry, Coe,
Rogers, Bailey, Johnston, Mcllroy and Kilpatrick prop
erties are summarized in Guillet (1964). The best
Barite and Fluorspar Resources in Ontario
intersection was on the Keene property and comprised
2.96 m grading between 55 and 609fc CaFi over a true
width of 3.18 m. The thickest vein widths on the Per
ry property are located near shafts number 2 and 3, and
only minor veinlets were observed in the core drilled
on the Coe property. On the Kilpatrick property, vein
material obtained in the core graded on average
between 50 and 859fc CaFi. Vein widths are estimated
to reach their greatest true widths at 1.89 m, but much
of the core was lost when drilling through the vein. A
fluorspar vein can be traced over a distance of 335 m
on the Johnston property.
The vein pinches and swells with maximum true
width reaching 2.26 m with a grade of 45 ^c CaF2. Only
a minor amount of fluorspar was observed in the
drilling of the Mcllroy property. Vein material could
be traced for 348 m across the Rogers property. The
vein pinches and swells with a maximum true width
reaching 1.24 m, grading 60*36 CaFz. Again, lost core
was common, making true vein widths difficult to
determine. On the Bailey property, the vein averages
7.07 m in width over a distance of 70 m; the materi
al from the Wallbridge, Howard, Coe, Keene, Bailey
and Johnston properties indicate that the ore can be up
graded to a product containing between 71 and 939fc
CaF2 through simply jigging, tabling and calcine
processing.
A number of regional normal faults in the area strike
parallel to the major rift zones of the region. Surface
traces of these faults tend to be distinctly curved, espe
cially at junctions with other faults (Thompson and
Williams 1987).
The fluorspar deposits of the Madoc area occur
either as connected lenses, disconnected en echelon
lenses or isolated lenses within faults or fractures in
Palaeozoic or underlying Precambrian rocks. The
largest ore bodies occur where the rock has failed
along a single fracture (Guillet 1964). Wilson (1929)
recognized the presence of two fault systems: one
striking 115 0 and representing a predominantly hori
zontal fault motion and one striking 135 0 representing
a vertical to sub-vertical fault motion. Because most
of the veins with the second orientation were geo
graphically removed from those belonging to the Moira
Fault system, Wilson referred to this group as the LeeMiller Group, which nearly all lie in concession l,
Madoc Township. Guillet (1964) proposed that the
lenticular cavities occupied by the fluorspar-bearing
veins were caused by the horizontal displacement of
the walls on an undulating fault surface.
Recent mapping and geophysical work (Thompson
1989; Thompson and Williams 1987, 1988, 1989;
Williams and Thompson 1986), confirms the existence
25
26
Barite and Fluorspar in Ontario
D
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Barite and Fluorspar Resources in Ontario
27
of the two distinct fracture systems. They concluded
that displacement along fluorspar-bearing fractures
was not generally significant. They propose that the
fluorspar-bearing veins occupy fractures adjacent to
faults and that the largest deposits have been located
close to fault junctions. Their work has led to a revi
sion of the classification of the Palaeozoic rocks in the
area and to the identification of a major volcanics at
the O'Kara Mill site. A number of the fractures trend
ing 1350 in the vicinity of the Moira fault system were
also recognized.
It is uncertain whether the two fracture patterns
were produced during one deformation event or two
separate events; whether the emplacement of vein
material took place during one or two episodes and
whether one fracture system is filled with vein mate
rial of a higher grade over the other. The three largest
producing mines
Rogers, Bailey, and Noyes
fall
along both fracture systems, with the Noyes Mine
being located at the junction of both systems.
Detailed geological and geochemical surveys were
recently undertaken in three sub-areas within the
immediate Moira Lake area (Dickson and Trinder
1989). The surveys confirmed the distribution of rock
types previously determined by Hewitt (1968), Lalonde
(1974) and Thompson (1986). The results of the geo
chemical surveys identified several coincident
fluorine-barium-zinc target anomalies. Trenching of
some of these targets failed to reveal any fluorsparbarite vein material on surface.
The vein material consists of fluorspar, calcite,
barite and minor amounts of celestite, quartz, marca
site, pyrite, sphalerite and other sulphides (Guillet
1964); it tends to occur as either alternating bands or
as irregular network partitions between vein cavities
(Wilson 1929). Although the vein minerals tend to
occur intermingled or interlayered in various propor
tions with no apparent order of precipitation, they
often occur as two parallel mineral zones separated
by a zone of fractured country rock. The zor, j -.re
usually of uneven width, the separating zone of coun
try rock ranging from a few centimetres to several
metres in width (Wilson 1929). Lenses within the vein
system range from less than l to 60 m in length and
from under l to 5 m in width. Lenses of vein materi
al tend to extend diagonally along the vein strike.
According to Guillet (1964), there appears to be no
consistent order of crystallization; however, quartz,
sulphide minerals, and celestite tend to occur near to
the wall of the veins. The banded distribution of
fluorspar, calcite and barite indicates a rhythmic mode
of deposition (Guillet 1964).
Although the composition of the vein material is
28
extremely variable, Guillet (1964) reports that the
Madoc ore averages between 50 and 7596 fluorspar.
Calcite constitutes 25 to 5096 of the veins and barite
ranges between 5 and 4096, but averages 1596.
Celestite, quartz and sulphide usually account for less
than 596 of the vein material. According to Guillet
(1964), the calcite content of the vein increases with
both depth and narrowing of the veins, at the Howard,
Keene and Bailey Mines.
Many of the "granitic" plutons within the MadocMoira Lake area are enriched in fluorine (Wu 1984).
Phases of the Deloro pluton have fluorine contents
that range from 1000 to 3660 ppm. The Barber Lake
granite, located 20 km northeast of Sharlot Lake, and
the Cheddar granite, located southeast of Bancroft,
are both enriched in fluorine (Wu 1984). Lalonde
(1974) has documented enriched fluorine contents in
the marbles and siliceous rocks adjacent to the Deloro
pluton.
Easton (1989) proposes that the Moira Lake gran
ite is connected to the Deloro pluton at depth, and
that it may be the source of some or all of the fluorine
found within the fluorspar-calcite-barite veins in the
Moira Lake area.
Cardiff, Monmouth, and Ross
Townships
Fluorspar veins are hosted within the northeaster
ly-trending metamorphosed alkalic suite of intrusive
rocks that extends over 100 km in length from Ross
Township in the north to Glamorgan Township in the
south. This suite consists of alkalic granite, alkalic
syenite, nepheline syenite and mafic alkalic rocks
(Lumbers 1982).
Cardiff Township Fluorspar
There are ten main fluorspar occurrences in Cardiff
Township. Fluorspar occurs as a major constituent of
narrow, lensoidal veins, hosted within the syenitic
pegmatite and gneiss (Guillet 1964). Recent mapping
by Bright (1983) has indicated that many of the
fluorspar veins have a spatial association with car
bonate dikes or lenses (possibly carbonatites).
The fluorspar in both Cardiff and Monmouth Town
ships occurs in fluorspar-calcite-apatite veins. These
veins are described by Guillet (1964) as being irreg
ular, discontinuous bodies, ranging in width from a
few centimetres to 0.3 m and up to 100 m in length.
The veins are highly variable in both composition and
size along strike and down-dip. The dark purple
fluorspar generally accounts for 20 to 3096 of the vein
material (Guillet 1964). Along with the major miner
als of fluorite, calcite, and apatite, local concentrations
Barite and Fluorspar in Ontario
of hornblende, biotite, pyroxene, scapolite and mag
netite can occur. The major minerals often occur as
well-banded purple fluorspar, grey to cream-coloured
calcite, and pale pink calcite (Satterly 1956). Postdepositional motion along the faults hosting the veins
result in the development of a finely-banded, mylonitized calcite-fluorspar material.
Uranium-bearing minerals are present in the
fluorspar veins at the Cardiff-Fluorite, Richardson,
Tripp, Clark and Montgomery properties. Radioactive
minerals have not been recorded at the Dwyer, Schickler and the Number 3 Zone of the Richardson
properties (Guillet 1964).
Monmouth Township Fluorspar
A number of fluorspar occurrences are located in the
east and southeastern portion of Monmouth Township.
Most of these occurrences are small; however, dia
mond drilling carried out between 1971 and 1975 by
Landair Exploration Limited outlined approximately 2
million tons of low-grade fluorspar ore in calciteapatite-fluorspar veins, containing uraninite,
uranophane and titanite, on a property extending
between Concessions X to XII and Lots 33 to 35 (Mar
tin 1983; Bright 1987).
This occurrence consists of two fluorspar horizons
covering a length of 617 m and a width of 4 m. An
upper horizon consists of calcite and fluorspar veins
hosted within a granite pegmatite. The main vein of
this horizon averages 2 m in width and contains
between 20 to 249fc CaFi (McConnel, 1977). A lower
horizon consists of several narrow calcite-fluorspar
veins occurring across a stratigraphic width of 5 to
9 m (Martin 1983).
Ross Township Fluorspar
Six fluorspar occurrences are hosted within the
alkalic complex that underlies much of the western
portion of Ross Township. All occurrences consist of
fluorspar-calcite-apatite veins hosted within the
syenitic gneiss (Satterly 1945).
Commentary
Although most of the showings and shallow work
ings of fluorspar and barite in the province have been
well documented in the past, notably in the reviews by
Guillet in the sixties, it is also true that such occur
rences have rarely been further explored to investigate
the possibilities of economic reserves.
Metals exploration programs in recent years have
led to the incidental discovery of significant deposits
in terms of volume, for example, Hemlo Belt barite and
Springpole Lake fluorspar. Such discoveries encour
age the view that concentrations at depth of potential
economic interest for either of these two minerals
remain to be identified in Ontario. Moreover, the pre
sent-day viability of working small deposits for
specialty markets has been successfully demonstrated
by the extraction of vein barite since 1967 by Exten
der Minerals of Canada Ltd. in the Matachewan area
near Timmins.
This review has drawn attention to the more promi
nent showings, both individual deposits and clustered
occurrences, which may merit further investigation.
It has also noted the spatial association of several
occurrences with alkalic igneous rocks and associat
ed carbonatite intrusions that merits the attention of
explorationists. On the basis of the geological infor
mation reviewed to date, the following areas are
highlighted for their actual or potential resources:
Barite
Thunder Bay area, N.W. Ontario
Vein-type occurrences have been worked commer
cially during the last century for their barite content
or for attendant silver values. The southern vein sys
tem, along a line of islands including Jarvis,
Thompson, Spar and McKellar Islands, has recorded
vein widths of up to 21 m. The grade of barite with
in the veins is high, between 84 and 909fc BaSO4 where
documented. The only stated estimate of barite reserves
is for McKellar Island at 50,000 short tons. The north
ern vein system is less well documented, but veins up
to 6 m wide are noted, with probable grades of above
80*?fc BaSO4 for the barite in O'Connor Township.
A combination of three or more deposits in these
vein systems could provide an overall resource esti
mate of better than 200,000 tonnes of barite.
Matachewan area, N.E. Ontario
Several known vein-type barite deposits, generally
narrow, have been worked in an area centred on Mat
achewan to the south of Timmins. These deposits, and
that of Tionaga to the west, were originally worked
Barite and Fluorspar Resources in Ontario
29
from surface and are now mined by underground meth
ods to produce up to 25,000 short tons per year with
an estimated average grade of 50 to 609fc BaSCU; the
grade of the barite contained in these veins, however,
is often above 909fc BaSO4 on the basis of specific
samples.
Hemlo area, N.W. Ontario
A substantial barite resource occurs in stratiform
deposits which host economic values of gold. Three
operating mines currently extract approximately 10,000
tonnes of gold ore per day (Table 9) from the under
ground workings. In original ore samples, a barite
content of up to 1496 BaSO4 was noted, but current
mined ore grades appear to be below 109fc BaSO4.
The ore also contains molybdenite, pyrite and stib
nite. At present, only gold is recovered in the three
operations. The processing plant residues, which are
finely ground, are deposited together with water in
adjacent tailings ponds. The gold ore reserves are large
and are expected to sustain production at these oper
ations for many years at current production rates.
Fluorspar
Madoc-Moira Lake area, S.E. Ontario
Numerous fluorspar veins, principally located with
in two vein-fault systems, have been worked from
early in this century up to 1961. Total reported pro
duction from 1905 to 1961 of metallurgical grade
fluorspar was around 110,000 tonnes. The veins, which
include varying amounts of calcite, quartz and barite,
have yielded samples of over 709fc CaFz, but an aver
age grade of 409fc to 6096 CaFz is more probable. The
literature does not provide any formal estimates of
reserves for the individual deposits. An undetermined
amount of ore is known to be present below mined
depths and along vein extensions.
alkaline rock assemblages that is found across the
province and encourages the targetting of this miner
al in future exploration programs within these rock
suites.
In summary, the great majority of individual occur
rences of barite and fluorspar in the province are small
vein deposits. In such cases, as demonstrated by the
current operations of Ontario's barite producer, several
of these deposits would be needed to provide adequate
tonnage to a central milling operation to offer eco
nomic potential. Exploration in the short term should
begin with the known vein systems in suitable prox
imity of prospects. Examples are the Thunder Bay
vein-fault systems for barite and the Madoc-Moira
Lake vein systems, as well as the occurrences in
Cardiff and Monmouth townships for fluorspar in east
ern Ontario. The available evidence for reserves in
these vein deposits is scant; nevertheless, exploration
targets of over 200,000 tonnes of barite in the Thun
der Bay area and of over 500,000 tonnes of
run-of-mine fluorspar ore from a variety of eastern
Ontario deposits should be considered as objectives for
speciality markets.
The two major known deposits in Ontario at the
present time, in terms of indicated or proven volumes,
are both gold properties in northwestern Ontario. The
Springpole Lake gold prospect is still in the explo
ration stage, but significant fluorspar values will
contribute to the economic evaluation of the property.
The gold ore zone mined at Hemlo includes substan
tial quantities of barite. In light of strong regional
market demand for each of the industrial mineral com
modities for high-value chemicals production, it would
be opportune for mining companies to review the pre
sent economics of by-product recovery potential for
such minerals.
Red Lake area, N.W. Ontario
The Springpole Lake carbonatite body to the north
east of Red Lake includes significant fluorspar
mineralization in terms of volume and grade, accord
ing to recently reported drilling results. This is a
prominent example of fluorspar in association with
Table 9
Hemlo Area Daily Gold Ore Production
Golden Giant Mine Hemlo Gold Inc.
David Bell Mine
Teck-Corona Corp.
Williams Division
Corona Corp.
30
3000 t/d
1100 t/d
6000 t/d
Barite and Fluorspar in Ontario
3. Options for
Barite Mineral
Production
Existing Production
Production of barite is currently limited to one com
pany in the province. The company, Extender Minerals
of Canada Ltd., produces barite ore from two mines in
North-Eastern Ontario in the townships of Penhor
wood and Yarrow from underground vein deposits
(Andrews and Ceilings 1990; Collings and Andrews
1988a; Guillet and Kriens 1984). Mining methods are
simple and low-key with a minimum of personnel.
Approximately 25,000 (short) tons per annum of barite
ore is partially upgraded at the mine sites, then trucked
to a finishing plant in Matachewan. In this plant, the
ore is dried and finely ground prior to bagging for
sale in the mineral filler industry. The finished grade
of barite is approximately 969fc BaSO4. Ore produced
from the two mines is between 50 and 609fc BaSCU
before treatment.
This operation has been continuous for a number of
years and seems to fit a market niche, probably with
long term contracts. It is probable that the deposits
being worked could sustain a higher level of produc
tion if demand were proven and following some extra
development of the underground workings or adjacent
veins not presently being worked. The grade of mate
rial being sold is suitable as feedstock for a barite
chemicals plant. It is not known what level of recov
ery is maintained in the upgrading process.
Production Options
A major use of barite is for drilling mud and this
demand is met by a number of large volume, low-cost
producers. Although the specifications for drilling
mud barite are a little less rigid than for chemical
grade barite, production of drilling mud grade mate
rial from Ontario sources is not considered to be
practical due to the type of mineral resources and the
implied control of the market by the existing producers.
A possible market is considered for up to 30,000
tonnes per year of chemical grade (92 to 969fc BaSO-O
barite, as feedstock for a chemicals plant producing a
range of barium compounds. This demand could be
satisfied by:
* A single mill producing 30,000 tonnes per year
of finished barite
* Two or more mills sized for smaller production
from different areas in the province
* A single mill producing 30,000 tonnes per year
of barite as a by product of the Hemlo gold
mines.
The accepted specifications (Griffiths 1988) for
chemical grade barite are given in Table 10.
Options for Barite Mineral Production
31
An average of 949fc BaSCU is considered in the fol
lowing production discussions. These options are
examined as follows:
30,000 tonnes per year Barite Mill
The Thunder Bay area appears to have the required
in-situ ore grades and volume of deposits necessary to
support a processing plant producing 30,000 tonnes
per year of finished (average 9496 BaSCU) barite. An
area reserve of at least 150,000 tonnes (of equivalent
contained barite) would be required to initiate devel
opment of a project.
From the data presented in available reports, it
seems unlikely that a single vein deposit could sustain
this level of production.
After allowing for average mined ore grade and
mill recovery, a mill feed rate of 47,000 tonnes per year
would be required.
The deposit on McKellar Island has a stated reserve
of 50,000 (short) tons (Ceilings and Andrew 1988a),
but extraction rates would be limited by access to the
site and the few possible working places on the surface
of the small island. Possibly an underground operation
would allow a higher production rate but development
would be costly. An individual production rate of
10,000 to 15,000 tonnes per year of ore may be attained
with surface workings. The neighbouring islands (Spar,
Jarvis, Thompson) have similar deposits but these are
not as well defined and if anything have narrower
veins thus limiting production rates. It is possible that
silver might occur in the barite vein structure and
could be recovered during processing by gravity sep
aration methods.
The vein deposits of O'connor Township and the
surrounding area offer easier access pending rights of
way and ownership obligations. The veins here are
narrower than on the islands but apparently contain
high grade barite.
Due to the fairly short distance between the island
and O'connor Township deposits, a proposed mill for
30,000 tonnes per year production could be located
centrally to treat ore trucked from two or more min-
Table 10
Specifications for chemical grade barite
BaSCu
BaSCu
CaF2(max)
SrSCMmax)
92-96 (lump)
96-98 (flotation cone.)
0.5
1.0
1.0
32
ing locations. Ore from the islands would have to be
transported across water by barge or possibly trucked
over ice bridges during a brief period in mid-winter.
The location of the mill would be selected to take
advantages of existing highways, services and suit
able land for the plant site and tailings disposal.
Based on information concerning the deposits and
preliminary test programs at CANMET (Andrews and
Collings 1990), the processing of the ore from these
deposits would be simple and low cost. Previous pro
duction of barite depended on careful extraction from
veins combined with hand sorting. CANMET studies
of numerous samples showed that gravity separation
alone was not always sufficient to obtain a satisfactory
concentrate grade. In order to allow treatment of var
ious deposits and to minimize manual upgrading, a
combination of gravity concentration and flotation
appears to be required. Grinding of gravity rejects pri
or to flotation will allow a maximum recovery of the
barite from the ore.
In the proposed plant, initial size reduction of mined
ore is followed by recovery using jigs and tables, fol
lowed by grinding and flotation of the gravity circuit
tailings. Iron containing minerals will be removed
from the combined gravity and flotation product by
high intensity magnetic separation and the final prod
uct will be dried sufficiently to allow transport by
truck to the proposed chemicals plant. Any excess
production is exported. This flowsheet is illustrated in
Figure 1.
The two other areas of potential barite production
are not considered to be as attractive for the siting of
a 30,000 tonnes per year production mill. The Mat
achewan area mines probably have sufficient reserves
but at the lower mined grade of ore, a mill feed rate
of 80,000 tonnes per year would be required. A typi
cal flowsheet for this type of ore is shown in Figure 2.
It is doubtful if this level of production could be eas
ily obtained in addition to current activities. A
substantial development program would be required
ahead of the production period. The deposits in the
South-Eastern part of the province are small, of vary
ing grade and a substantial program of exploration
would be required to determine if available reserves
could sustain the desired production rate.
Two or More Mills
The siting of at least two mills to produce an aggre
gate of 30,000 tonnes per year of finished barite
appears feasible. The mills would be situated close to
the mineral deposits and would suit the obtainable
mining production rates. A disadvantage is the high
er unit processing cost per tonne of product. For this
Barite and Fluorspar in Ontario
OPEN PIT MINE
WASTE ROCK
80* BoS04
JAW CRUSHER TO Z'
CLAY. SLIMES
SIZE REDUCTION
(HAUMERMIU.)
l PRODUCT -1/2"
SHAKING TABLES
CONCENTRATE
ROD MILL TO -300 urn
2
BARITE ROUGHER FLOTN.
BARITE FLOTATION
CONCENTRATE
BARITE CLEANERS
HIGH INTENSITY
BARITE CONC +94X BoSO
FILTRATION AND DRYING
aOTATION TAILINGS
CHEMICAL PLANT
Figure 1. Barite Recovery from Vein Mine - Open Pit.
reason the study considers two mills only, each rated
at 15,000 tonnes per year of barite concentrate. A
probable location for the two mills is one in the Thun
der Bay area and one in the Matachewan area. This is
premised on the possibility of expanded mining capac
ity from the current operations near Matachewan or
development of other deposits in that area.
The overall production cost of barite will be high
er than in the first option due to the implied additional
transportation cost of barite to the chemicals plant,
which would be situated either centrally or close to one
of the producing areas.
By-Product Mill
The production of 30,000 tonnes per year of barite
as a by-product from the existing gold mines in the
Hemlo areas is considered. One of the mines (Golden
Giant Mine of Hemlo Gold Inc.) produces a sufficient
quantity of ore to sustain this proposed production.
Barite would be recovered by processing a portion of
Options for Barite Mineral Production
the present gold mine reject (tailings) stream which is
being discharged to a tailings disposal area.
The grade of barite in the existing tailings stream
is low and assumed for this study to average 8*?fc
BaSO4- The tailings solids also contain minor quanti
ties of pyrite, molybdenum sulphide and smaller
amounts of other metal sulphides plus mica. Process
ing methods must remove these deleterious minerals
in order to produce the required high grade barite con
centrate. Hemlo Gold has installed and operated briefly
a molybdenum recovery circuit within the existing
mill but operation was curtailed due to unfavourable
economics. The obvious advantage for the proposed
barite recovery plant is that all ore mining and size
reduction is conducted as part of the gold recovery
operation.
The mill cost of barite production would still be
high since approximately 705,000 tonnes per year of
gold mill tailings need to be processed to yield the
required 30,000 tonnes per year of barite. This is a
33
UNDERGROUND MINE
WASTE ROCK
55J6 BaSO,
JAW CRUSHER TO 2"
l
CLAY, SUMES
LOG WASHER
SURGE BIN
SIZE REDUCTION
(HAMMERMILL)
w PRODUCT -1/2"
BARITE JIGS
CONC.
BARITE GRAVITY
CONCENTRATE
SHAKING TABLES
TAILINGS
ROD MILL TO -300 urn
SCREEN
-300 um
SUMES REJECT
CYCLONE
CONDITIONER
BARITE FLOTATION
CONCENTRATE
l
BARITE ROUGHER FLOTN.
CONC.
BARITE CLEANERS
6 STAGES
HIGH INTENSITY
MAG. SEPARATION
BARITE CONC. +94X BoS0 4
FILTRATION AND DRYING
FLOTATION TAILINGS
V
REJECTS
V
BARITE TO
CHEMICAL PLANT
Figure 2. Barite Recovery from Vein Mine - Underground.
34
Barite and Fluorspar in Ontario
substantial quantity, equivalent to a mill capacity of
about 2,000 tonnes per day.
In order to produce a clean, high grade barite con
centrate, the flotation process would be employed.
Recovery by flotation of pyrite, molybdenum and oth
er metal sulphides will be necessary prior to the barite
flotation stage. Final cleaning by acid leaching will
probably be required to eliminate iron contamination.
The selected process is shown in Figure 3. Although
not specifically included in this study, costs associat
ed with possible royalties and changes to existing
disposal systems may be incurred. The recovery of
barite will also remove from the gold mill tailings a
major source of material available for backfilling
underground workings. While Hemlo Gold does not
presently recover material for backfilling it is possi
ble that this may be a future consideration.
Production Costs
The costs of barite production have been estimated
on the basis of the three main production options pre
viously described. The costs comprise two main
categories:
- Pre-production capital costs for mine develop
ment, mill construction and services,
* Operating cost during the production phase
including transportation of ore and concentrate.
Mining costs are developed on the basis of a con
tracted mining operation using typical rates for small
open pit or underground mines, thus reducing capital
requirements. The major capital expenditure in each
case is for construction of a milling facility which
includes services. Mill sizes equivalent to annual pro
duction levels of 15,000 and 30,000 tonnes per year are
examined for each probable producing area.
Direct operating costs include mining, ore trans
portation and milling. Milling costs are derived from
estimated labour costs plus processing costs (power
and raw materials), the latter based on flowsheets and
chemical consumption rates proposed in the CANMET testwork (Ceilings and Andrews 1988a).
Added to the direct operating cost of barite pro
duction is the cost of capital expenditure recovery and
an allowance for product shipping. It is assumed for
comparison that capital expenditures will be recov
ered during the first five years of production. Product
shipping to a chemicals plant is assumed to be by nor
mal highway type truck but depends primarily on site
and market locations.
Open Pit Vein Production
A preliminary design for the processing plant and
the preliminary estimate of operating cost is premised
on the assumed criteria listed in Table 11.
This is typical of a Thunder Bay area plant described
previously. The small proportion of operating time is
Table 11
Preliminary Operating Costs for an Open Pit Barite Operation
Mined ore grade
Barite recovery
Product grade
Annual production
Seasonal operation
Days per week
Hours per day
Options for Barite Mineral Production
( 0Xo BaSO4)
W
( 0Xo BaSO4)
(tonnes)
(months)
80
75
94
30,000
8
5
16
35
MAIN FLOW TO
MILL TAILINGS POND
GOLD MILL TAILING STREAM
8X Base*
MOLY FLOTATION
CONDITIONING
MOLY ROUGHER FLOTN.
CONC.
MOLY CLEANERS
6-9 STAGES
MOLY FLOTATION
CONCENTRATE TO SALE
FILTER, DRYER,
DRUMMING
TAILING
i*——~——
CLEANER TAILINGS TO
JOIN GOLD MILL TAILINGS
f\ PYRITE FLOTATION
\J CONDITIONING
l
PYRITE ROUGHER FLOTN.
CONC.
PYRITE FLOTATION
CONCENTRATE
TAILING
BARITE FLOTATION
CONDITIONING
BARITE ROUGHER FLOTN.
CONC.
BARITE CLEANERS
6 STAGES
BARITE FLOTATION
CONCENTRATE
SHAKING
TABLES
ACID LEACH
WATER RINSE
TAILINGS TO
JOIN GOLD MILL TAILINGS
CONCENTRATE FILTRATION
AND DRYING, STORAGE
V
PRODUCT TO
CHEMICAL PLANT
Figure 3. Barite Recovery from Mill Tailings.
36
Barite and Fluorspar in Ontario
Table 12
Mine and mill production cost summary
Barite mill, open pit vein mine
ANNUAL
COST, S
Payroll
Reagents and Supplies
Maintenance Supplies
Power and Fuel
Contract Mining
Ore Haulage to Mill (40 km)
Insurance, taxes, etc.
General
Contingency
Direct Operating Cost
Capital Repayment (5 years)
Product Shipping (40 km)
Total Production Cost
582,000
243,000
75,000
160,000
644,000
460,000
50,000
115,000
232,900
2,561,900
600,000
78,000
3,239,900
UNIT COST,
S/t ore
12.65
5.28
1.63
3.48
14.00
10.00
1.09
2.50
5.06
55.69
13.04
1.70
70.43
UNIT COST,
S/t Product
19.40
8.10
2.50
5.33
21.47
15.33
1.67
3.83
7.76
85.40
20.00
2.60
108.00
NOTE: Milling Rate = 46,000 tonnes per year
Product Rate - 30,000 tonnes per year
selected to suit seasonal production and handling of the
open pit ore and to optimize the fixed labour costs.
The estimated capital cost for this facility is approx
imately S3 million. Mining equipment is not included
as costs are based on a contracted mining and ore
haulage operation. Preliminary information on the
sizes of major items of equipment and typical pur
chase costs are provided in Appendix A.
The estimated production cost is developed in Table
12, resulting in a direct operating cost of 385 per tonne
of barite product. Indirect costs for capital recovery
and product shipping are estimated to bring the over
all production cost to approximately S108 per tonne of
barite. Silver may also be recovered when working
favourable vein deposits and sold as a by-product,
thereby reducing net operating costs.
A total of 14 personnel are required for operation
Table 13
Estimated costs for a 15,000 tons per year
open pit operation
Capital cost
Direct operating cost
Overall production cost
S3 million
S108 per tonne barite
S151 per tonne barite
Options for Barite Mineral Production
of the plant, plus contractors engaged in mining and
trucking.
The capital cost of a facility to produce 15,000
tonnes per year of barite is estimated to be similar,
based on the use of an identical plant but at reduced
operating time. The operating cost will be slightly
higher due to the effect of the lower production rate
on fixed costs.
At 15,000 tonnes per year capacity, the total esti
mated costs are shown in Table 13.
Underground Vein Production
A similar processing plant is proposed for upgrad
ing underground ore from a typical North-Eastern
Ontario producer. Table 14 illustrates the criteria
employed.
Operation during a 12 month per year period is pro
posed due to the higher ore treatment rate and to avoid
stockpiling ore during winter periods.
The estimated capital cost for the facility is again
approximately S3 million. This plant can be identical
to the plant employed to treat the open pit vein
deposits. A preliminary estimate of direct operating
cost is S159 per tonne of barite, with an overall pro
duction cost (including capital recovery) of S242 per
tonne barite produced. This is shown in the Table 15.
It has been assumed also that the product will be
37
Table 14
Table 16
Preliminary operating costs for an
underground barite operation
Average Operating Cost for Two Mills
Mined ore grade
( 0Xo BaSO4)
Barite recovery
( 0Xo)
Product grade
0Xo BaSO4)
Annual production
Seasonal operation months
Days per week
Hours per day
55
70
94
30,000
12
5
16
shipped to a chemicals plant located either in NorthEastern Ontario or in Southern Ontario. A total of 15
personnel are required, plus contractors engaged in
mining and trucking.
At the lower production rate of 15,000 tonnes per
year, which may be more applicable in this case, the
capital cost remains as S3 million and the overall pro
duction cost increases to S274 per tonne barite.
Two or More Mills
The concept of two or more mills producing an
aggregate of 30,000 tonnes per year of barite may suit
the proposed production rate from the presently known
deposits. On the assumption that a mining/milling
Capital cost (2 mills)
Operating cost (direct)
Operating cost (overall)
SG million
S146 per tonne barite
S212 per tonne barite
operation of the two types considered above may be
combined, an average cost is shown in Table 16.
This overall cost implies the shipment of half of
the production over a considerable distance to a chem
icals plant located near one of the producers. Total
employment related to the two plants is estimated to
be 23, plus personnel engaged in contract mining and
trucking activities.
By-product Recovery
A processing operation designed to recover 30,000
tonnes per year of barite from gold mill tailings in
the Hemlo area needs to process approximately
705,000 tonnes per year of the tailings. The proposed
plant will treat a portion of the current tailings stream,
with design criteria shown in Table 17.
Continuous operation throughout the year is
designed to match the gold mill operation. The option
of recovering already deposited tailings is not con-
Table 15
Mine and Mine Production Cost Summary
Barite Mill, Underground Mine
ANNUAL
COST, S
Payroll
Reagents and Supplies
Maintenance Supplies
Power and Fuel
Contract Mining
Ore Haulage to Mill (40 km)
Insurance, taxes, etc.
General
Contingency
Direct Operating Cost
Capital Repayment (5 years)
Product Shipping
Total Production Cost
734,000
328,000
50,000
184,000
2,080,000
800,000
50,000
115,000
434,100
4,775,100
1,000,000
1,485,000
7,260,100
UNIT COST,
S/t ore
9.18
4.10
0.63
2.30
26.00
10.00
0.63
1.44
5.43
59.69
12.50
18.56
90.75
UNIT COST,
S/t Product
24.47
10.93
1.67
6.13
69.33
26.67
1.67
3.83
14.47
159.17
33.33
49.50
242.00
NOTE: Milling Rate = 80,000 tonnes per year
Product Rate = 30,000 tonnes per year
38
Barite and Fluorspar in Ontario
Table 17
Design Criteria for By-product Recovery
Capital cost
S3 million
Ore grade-gold mill tailings ( 0Xo BaSO4)
8
Barite recovery (0Xo)
50
Product grade ( 0Xo BaSCU)
94
Annual production
30,000
Seasonal operation months
12
Days per week
7
Hours per day
24
18, giving a direct cost of approximately S100 per
tonne of barite product. The addition of indirect costs
for capital repayment and product shipping brings the
total production cost to approximately S180 per tonne.
Molybdenum sulphide may be recoverable for sale as
a by-product, thereby reducing net operating cost.
A total of 17 personnel are required for plant oper
ation and administration.
sidered due to the difficulty and cost of working with
in the tailings pond areas.
It must be noted that, while the area is developed
by the existing mining operations, a new independent
facility would still require development of the site
and installation of services. The exception would be
if one of the existing gold producers installed a barite
recovery plant as an adjunct to the present milling
operation. This has not been considered for this study.
The capital cost of the facility is estimated to be
approximately S8.4 million. Preliminary information
on the sizes of major items of equipment and typical
purchase costs are provided in Appendix A.
The estimated production cost is developed in Table
Table 18
Mine and Mill Production Cost Summary
Barite Mill, Gold Mill Tailings
ANNUAL
COST, S
Payroll
Reagents and Supplies
Maintenance Supplies
Power and Fuel
Contract Mining
Ore Haulage to Mill
Insurance, taxes, etc.
General
Contingency
Direct Operating Cost
Capital Repayment
Product Shipping
Total Production Cost
835,000
955,000
300,000
393,000
0
0
100,000
105,000
268,800
2,956,800
1,686,000
757,200
5,400,000
UNIT COST,
S/t ore
1.18
1.35
0.43
0.56
0.00
0.00
0.14
0.15
0.38
4.19
2.39
1.07
7.66
UNIT COST,
S/t Product
27.83
31.83
10.00
13.10
0.00
0.00
3.33
3.50
8.96
98.56
56.20
25.24
180.00
NOTE: Milling Rate a 705,000 tonnes per year
Product Rate = 30,000 tonnes per year
Options for Barite Mineral Production
39
40
Barite and Fluorspar in Ontario
4, Options for
Barium
Chemicals
Production
Options for Barium Chemicals Production
Production Options
The majority of barium chemicals are derived from
high quality barite ore, containing a minimum of 949fc
barium sulphate (BaSO4), which is reacted with a car
bon source (usually coal) at high temperature to
produce barium sulphide, the precursor of a wide range
of barium chemicals. Primary and secondary deriva
tives of the BaS that were identified as representing a
potential commercial opportunity for Ontario's indus
trial minerals industry include the high demand
derivatives BaCOa and BaCh and lower volume, val
ue-added BaSO4 , BaO, BaCh, Ba(NO2h, BaTiO 3 ,
barium stearates and barium ferrites.
Based on an overview of the market potential for
these barium chemicals in Canada and the North-Eastern United States, it was decided to concentrate on
the production of commercial quantities of BaS, pri
marily for captive use, BaCOs, primarily for sales,
BaCh, BaSO4, BaO and Ba(OH)2. Production of these
barium chemicals in dedicated production facilities
was considered to be the prime criterion although pro
duction in a multi-purpose plant was explored as a
means of reducing overall production costs. The use
of a multi-purpose plant offers the potential of pro
ducing additional low volume, value-added, barium
chemicals to take advantage of short term market
opportunities.
In all cases, processing options were selected to
take advantage of the best available technology, includ
ing established and emerging technologies, to protect
the environment by controlling harmful emissions and,
if possible, to produce competitively priced final prod
ucts. In particular, processes were selected to control
sulphur emissions by the production of by-product
NaaS, a potentially valuable chemical in the pulp and
paper industry.
Figure 4 depicts the various processing routes avail
able to produce the various barium chemicals from
barite/barium sulphide (Ullman et al. 1985) and high
lights the routes selected for this study.
Production rates for the barium chemicals were
established (Table 19) based on the potentially avail
able Canadian and North-Eastera United States markets
and the need to construct and operate a reasonably
sized facility in order to produce competitively priced
products.
A total of 30,000 tonnes per year of barite concen
trate (949fc BaSO4) was assumed to be available from
the mineral production facilities.
41
Figure 4. Production Pathways to Various Barium Compounds.
Barium Sulphide
Barium sulphide, the precursor of most barium
chemicals, is produced from high quality barite (min
imum 949fc BaSO4) by reduction with a source of
carbon. The primary chemical reaction is:
BaSO4 + 4C *- BaS + 4CO
The most popular process for the production of BaS
is the rotary kiln process (Kirk et al. 1984; McKetta
Table 19
Production rates for barium chemicals
BaS
BaCOs (sales)
20,000 tonnes per year
12,000 average,
14,000 maximum
BaCI 2
3,500 average,
5,000 maximum
BaSO4
1,000 average
1,500 maximum
BaO7Ba(OH) 2
(as BaO)
1.500 average,
3,000 maximum
42
and Cunningham 1976; Ullman and Gerhatz 1988;
White 1949) in which the reduction reaction is carried
out with coal or coke as the source of carbon in a sup
plemental fired rotary kiln at temperatures of 1000 to
1250 0 C. Purity of the barite ore must be high, with
minimum iron and silicon concentrations, as these
impurities tend to form insoluble barium compounds
during the reduction process. A crude BaS (black ash),
typically containing 75 to 909fc BaS, is discharged
from the rotary kiln.
Off-gases from the kiln contain particulates and
SOz from the sulphur in the coal or coke used in the
reduction reaction, from the kiln fuel and from side
reactions that occur in the kiln. As a result, removal
of particulates and SOz scrubbing are required to avoid
air pollution problems and to meet applicable envi
ronmental emission standards.
Barite reduction to BaS with natural gas in fluidized
bed reactors has been discussed in the literature (Kirk
et al. 1984; Ullman and Gerhatz 1985) and is report
edly being carried out in the U.S.S.R. The fluidized bed
process offers several advantages, including lower
SOz emissions and the potential for the elimination
of the scrubbing systems as the sulphur content of the
carbon source and fuel is essentially zero. Addition
ally, the purity of the black ash product is potentially
higher and lower grades of barite ore can be consid-
Barite and Fluorspar in Ontario
Table 20
Black Ash Analysis
Water Soluble BaS
Insoluble Barium Compounds
Inert Ash, SiO2,
75-90 0Xo
5-170Xo
S-8%
ered as no inert materials enter with the carbon source.
However, insufficient data were identified to permit an
evaluation of the economic feasibility of the process,
compared to that of the rotary kiln process.
Black ash from either process is a grey/black pow
der that reacts readily with moisture and CCh in the air
to release H2S. Some black ash is packaged and sold
to producers of barium chemicals but most is pro
cessed directly into other barium chemicals. The
typical analysis for black ash is shown in Table 20.
Black ash produced in the kiln for further process
ing is wet or dry ground to a fine powder and contacted
with water in a series of leaching tanks. The BaS is
extracted into the water, forming a 25 to 30^o solution
of BaS. The aqueous solution is stored for further pro
cessing into other barium chemicals.
The undissolved residue or sludge, containing
BaCOs and other acid-soluble barium salts, uncon
verted BaSO4 and inert impurities, is temporarily
stored for further processing into BaCh. Discarding
this sludge would reduce the overall yield of barium
chemicals from the barite concentrate by 5 to 159fc.
The rotary kiln process was selected for use in this
study as it represents the established technology and
insufficient data were available to permit a valid eval
uation of the fluidized bed process. A simplified flow
plan for the production of barium sulphide from barite
ore via the rotary kiln process is presented in Figure 5
and overall operating parameters are provided in
Table 21.
The plant is designed to produce 4,400 tonnes per
year (as BaS) of black ash for sale, 12,750 tonnes per
year (as BaS) of solution for use in the production of
BaCO3 and BaSCU and 2,850 tonnes per year (as BaS)
of sludge plus BaS solution for use in the production
of BaCh. Flexibility is included in the design of the
black ash leaching circuit to permit the increased pro
duction of BaS solution as the demand for derivative
chemicals increases.
Barium Carbonate
Barium carbonate is the most important derivative
of BaS. It is used widely in the manufacture of glass,
brick and porcelain, in the electronics industry and as
a raw material in the manufacture of specialty barium
chemical products.
Barium carbonate is precipitated from a solution
Table 21
Operating Parameters
Barium Sulphide Production
PLANT CAPACITY:
20,000 t/a BaS
RAW MATERIALS:
Barite (940X0 BaSO4)
Coal
UTILITIES:
Natural Gas
Electricity
PRODUCTS:
Black Ash (as BaS), sales
BaS Solution (as BaS),
captive use
BaS Sludge (as BaS),
captive use
OPERATION:
STAFFING:
30,000 t/a
7,500 t/a
7,000
120 kW
4,400 t/a
12,7501/3
2,850 t/a
24 h/d
330 d/y
Operations, Maintenance
and Administration
Options for Barium Chemicals Production
20
43
n
C
o
*-
o•3
-o
o
CL
(D
CO
E
D
CO
Sif
c
D
Q.
O
LJ-
T:
o
l^
Q.
E
CO
44
Barite and Fluorspar in Ontario
of BaS by the addition of CO2 or NaiCOa (Faith et al.
1975; Kirk et al. 1984; McKetta and Cunningham
1976; Sittig 1968; Ullman and Gerhatz 1985; White
1949). The overall chemical reactions are:
BaS * CO2 + H2O *- BaCOs * H2S
BaS * Na2CO3 ^ BaCO3 * Na2S
The choice between the two processes depends on
the availability and cost of the raw materials, CO2 and
Na2COs, the desired purity and properties of the prod
uct BaCCh and the desired by-product, H2S or Na2S.
Carbon dioxide may be recovered from off-gases
exiting the BaS kiln or from the exhaust gases of a
boiler or fired heater for use in the production of bar
ium carbonate. The CO2 is bubbled through the BaS
solution to precipitate BaCOs and yield by-product
H2S. The BaCOs is recovered by filtration, dried and
ground to the desired particle size range. Barium car
bonate produced by the CO2 process is a free-flowing
powder but typically contains elemental sulphur, BaS
and BaSC*4 contaminants.
Hydrogen sulphide, generated as a by-product in
the CO2 process, must be processed further as it can
not be discharged to the atmosphere as H2S or as SO2
for environmental and worker safety reasons. It may
be converted to elemental sulphur by the Claus process
or to Na2S or (NH4) 2S by reaction with NaOH or
NH4OH. All of these processes add to the complexi
ty and cost of the production facility but do result in
the production of a readily saleable by-product.
In the Na2COs process, Na2COa (soda ash) is dis
solved in water and reacted with BaS solution to
precipitate sulphur-free BaCOs and yield by-product
Na2SO4. The barium carbonate is recovered by filtra
tion or centrifugation, dried and ground to the desired
particle size range. Barium carbonate produced by the
Na2CO3 process contains fewer impurities than mate
rial produced by the CO2 process as it is free of
elemental sulphur and contains very little sulphide or
sulphate. Typical product purities are given in Table 22.
Barium carbonate produced from Na2COs tends to
cake and is not as free-flowing as material produced
via the CO2 process. This can be overcome, to a great
extent, by the proper selection of drying equipment
and conditions.
Sodium sulphide is recovered from the reaction
solution, after removal of the precipitated BaCOs, by
evaporation and crystallization. The Na2S product is
recovered as Na2S 3H2O (609fc Na2S) by convention
al centrifugation and drying.
The Na2COs process was selected for use in this
study as Na2COs is readily available in the province,
as a high purity BaCOs product is desired and as a
potential market exists in the province for by-product
Options for Barium Chemicals Production
Table 22
Typical Barium Carbonate Purity
HCI Insolubles
98.5 0Xo, minimum
0.02-0.080Xo
Q.1-0.6%
Na2S as a replacement for Na2SCM in Kraft process
pulp and paper mills. Additionally, the Na2CO3 process
is technically simpler than the CO2 process and capi
tal costs are comparable, particularly when recovery
facilities for by-product H2S are included.
A simplified flow plan for the production of BaCOs
from BaS solution and Na2COs is presented in Fig
ure 6 and overall operating parameters are provided in
Table 23. The plant is designed to produce a maxi
mum of 16,000 tonnes per year of BaCOs although
the normal operating production will be 13,950 tonnes
per year, 12,000 tonnes per year for sale and 1,950
tonnes per year for use in the production of
BaCVBa(OH)2.
Barium Chloride
Barium chloride is used extensively in the elec
trolytic production of chlorine and sodium hydroxide,
magnesium metal and sodium metal, as a flux in the
steel industry and nationally in the uranium industry
to precipitate radium. It is also used as a raw materi
al in the production of low volume specialty barium
chemicals.
Barium chloride is produced by reading a barium
salt, usually BaS or BaCO3 , with HCI (Kirk et al.
1984; McKetta and Cunningham 1976; Ullman and
Gerhatz 1985; White 1949), according to the overall
chemical reactions:
BaS + 2HC1 *- BaCl2 * H2S
BaCO3 + 2HC1 *- BaCl2 * CO2 + H2O
The selection of the preferable raw material, BaS or
BaCOs, is dependent on their relative availability and
cost, the desired purity of the BaCl2 and disposal costs
for the by-product H2S in the BaS process.
Technical grade BaCl2 (999fc BaCh, minimum, or
equivalent in the dihydrate form) is typically produced
from BaS sludge and BaS solution from a rotary kiln
BaS processing plant. The sludge typically contains 5
to 15*^ of the original barite (BaSCu ) in an acid sol
uble form. This can be recovered as technical grade
BaCl2 by contacting the sludge with HCI in an agitated
reactor and removing Ca, Mg, Al and Si impurities
by selective filtration, evaporation and crystallization.
High purity grade BaCl2 (99.99fc BaCl2, minimum)
45
BARIUM CARBONATE
SODIUM SULPHIDE
Figure 6. Simplified Flow Plan for Barium Carbonate Production.
is typically produced from BaCOa as a higher purity,
but more expensive, raw material.
The BaS route to BaCh, making use of the BaS
sludge formed in the rotary kiln process for production
of the BaS plus additional BaS solution, was selected
for use in this study as its use improves the overall uti
lization of the barite ore, improves overall economics
of the BaS production step and is capable of produc
ing technical grade BaCb. A simplified flow plan for
the production of BaCh from BaS sludge and HC1 is
Table 23
Operating Parameters
Barium Carbonate Production
PLANT CAPACITY:
16,000 t/a BaCO3
(13,950 t/a normal operation)
RAW MATERIALS:
BaS Solution (as BaS)
UTILITIES:
Natural Gas
Electricity
PRODUCTS:
BaCOs, sales
BaCOs, captive use
Na2S (as Na2 S), sales
OPERATION:
STAFFING:
46
12,000 t/a
7,500 t/a
10,000 m 37d
200 kW
12,0001/3
1.950 t/a
5,500 t/a
24 h/d
330 d/a
Operations, Maintenance
and Administration
17
Barite and Fluorspar in Ontario
Figure 7. Simplified Flow Plan for Barium Chloride Production,
presented in Figure 7 and overall operating parameters
are provided in Table 24.
The BaCl2 is recovered from solution by vacuum
crystallization of BaCl2 -2H2O, filtration and drying.
Anhydrous BaCh can be recovered by high tempera
ture drying or calcination of the dihydrate.
By-product H2S is contacted with NaOH in an agi
tated reaction vessel to produce Na2S, according to
the overall reaction:
H2S + 2NaOH ^ Na2S + 2H 2O
The Na2S solution is combined with a similar solu
tion from the BaCOs production plant, evaporated and
crystallized for recovery of the Na2S.
Hydrochloric acid and BaCl2 solutions are very cor-
Table 24
Operating Parameters
Barium Chloride Production
PLANT CAPACITY:
5,000 t/a BaCI 2
(3,500 t/a normal operation)
RAW MATERIALS:
BaS Sludge (as BaS)
HCI (32 0Xo)
NaOH (500Xo)
UTILITIES:
Natural Gas
Electricity
PRODUCTS:
BaCI 2 (as BaCI 2), sales
As BaCI 2 -2H 2O
Na2S (as Na2S), sales
OPERATION:
STAFFING:
2,850 t/a
3,850 t/a
2,700 t/a
7,000 rr^/d
120 kW
3,500 t/a
4,1001/3
1,300 t/a
24 h/d
330 d/a
Operations, Maintenance
and Administration
Options for Barium Chemicals Production
12
47
rosive to most common materials of construction and
special precautions must be taken in the selection of
appropriate materials for equipment components and
piping. Fibreglass, graphite, hastelloy, titanium, rub
ber-lined steel or plastic-coated steel vessels and
components have been successfully used in these or
similar applications.
Barium Sulphate
Synthetic BaSO4, or precipitated BaSO4, is used in
applications in which natural barite is not satisfactory.
It is used as a filler and extender in rubber and plastic
materials and as a paper coating and filler. Important
properties are its insolubility in water and organic
binders, its high degree of whiteness, its fine grain size
and a low iron content. Special photographic and X-ray
applications require ultra-high purity BaSCU with less
than 10 ppm iron and very low sulphur content.
Precipitated BaSO/t, or blanc fixe, for use as a filler
and extender is usually manufactured from BaS solu
tion by the addition of Na2SO4 (Kirk et al. 1984;
McKetta and Cunningham 1976; Ullman and Gerhatz
1985), as per the overall reaction:
BaS * Na2SO4 *- BaSO4 + Na2S
Special high purity grades of BaSO4 are typically
produced from BaCCb or BaCl2 by the addition of
Na2SO4 or H2SO4.
The production of precipitated BaSO4 from BaS
solution via the Na2SO4 route was selected for this
study as this grade of product, blanc fixe, represents
the greatest share of the potential market, as Na2SO4
is readily available and as Na2S recovery facilities are
included in the BaCOa processing plant. A simplified
flow plan for the production of BaSO4 from BaS solu
tion and Na2SO4 is presented in Figure 8 and overall
operating parameters are provided in Table 25.
Barium sulphate is produced by contacting BaS
solution with high purity Na2SO4 solution in an appro
priate reaction vessel. The BaSO4 is recovered by
filtration, drying, sintering and grinding to give the
desired grain size.
The Na2S solution is combined with other solution
from the BaCOs and BaCh plants, evaporated and
crystallized for recovery of the Na2S.
Barium Oxide/Hydroxide
Barium oxide and hydroxide are used mainly in the
manufacture of oil and grease additives, as the raw
material for organic barium salts and for dehydration/deacidification of fats, oils and waxes.
Barium oxide is produced primarily by the decom
position of BaCOa in the presence of a source of carbon
at high temperature (Kirk et al. 1984; McKetta and
Cunningham 1976; Sittig 1968). The overall reac
tion is:
BaCO3 + C —*- BaO + 2CO
The use of carbon in the process significantly low
ers the temperature at which the BaCOa decomposes;
it also serves as a source of energy for the high tem
perature process.
The decomposition reaction can be carried out in a
rotary kiln or in a fluidized bed. In the rotary kiln
process, coal, coke or carbon black is used as the
source of carbon. As a result, the level of impurities
in the carbon source must be carefully controlled to
avoid contamination of the BaO product. Most mod
ern plants use the fluidized bed process as natural gas
can be used as the source of carbon. This results in the
production of high purity BaO with typical purity as
shown in Table 26.
The fluidized bed process was selected for use in
this study as it represents state-of-the-art technology
Figure 8. Simplified Flow Plan for Barium Sulphate Production.
48
Barite and Fluorspar in Ontario
Table 25
Operating Parameters
Barium Sulphate Production
PLANT CAPACITY:
1,500 t/a BaSO4
(1,000 t/a normal operation)
RAW MATERIALS:
BaS Solution (as BaS)
N32SO4
UTILITIES:
Natural Gas
Electricity
PRODUCTS:
BaSCU, sales
(as Na2S), sales
2,000 m 37d
100 kW
Operations, Maintenance
and Administration
and produces a high grade, highly reactive product. A
simplified flow plan for the fluidized bed process is
presented in Figure 9 and overall operating parameters
are provided in Table 27.
In the fluidized bed process, BaCO3 is contacted
with natural gas in the reaction zone at 1000 to 12500C.
The BaCO3 decomposes, yielding BaO. The BaO is
cooled, ground and packaged for sale. Handling and
storage of BaO must be carried out with extreme cau
tion and under controlled conditions as the oxide will
react with COi and water in the atmosphere to form
BaCO3 or Ba(OH)2 in a very exothermic reaction.
Much of the BaO produced is converted to more
stable Ba(OH)2 products, either the monohydrate or the
octahydrate form. Barium hydroxide octahydrate is
prepared by adding water to BaO in an appropriate
reaction vessel with suitable heat removal capability.
The octahydrate product is cooled, flaked and pack
aged. Barium hydroxide monohydrate is produced by
drying the octahydrate reaction mass in heated vacu
um or rotary drum dryers.
Multi-Purpose Plant Possibilities
The production of barium chemicals from barite or
BaS is characterized by reaction between BaS and a
Table 26
Purity of Barium Oxide
BaO
BaCOs
BaO2 (peroxide)
1.000 t/a
330 t/a
24 h/d
330 d/a
OPERATION:
STAFFING:
750 t/a
610 t/a
97-9907o
1-30Xo
maximum
Options for Barium Chemicals Production
number of inorganic salts or acids to produce the bar
ium salts, as illustrated below:
BaS * Na2CO3
^ BaCO3
BaS 4- Na2SO4
^ BaSO4
BaS * 2HC1
*- BaCl2 4- H2S
BaS + 2HNO3
* Ba(NO3)2 H2S
Many of the reaction systems, product characteris
tics and by- product handling requirements are similar,
leading to the possibility of constructing a multi-pur
pose plant with the capability of producing multiple
products in a single production train.
Based on an analysis of the processing steps
required to produce the selected barium chemicals,
BaS, BaCO3 , BaCl 2 , BaSO4 , BaO and Ba(OH) 2 , it
appears that the only products that can be produced in
a single production train, in blocked operation, are
BaCO3 and BaSO4. Production of both barium chem
icals involves the reaction of BaS solution with the
corresponding sodium salt, Na2CO3 or Na2SO4, result
ing in the precipitation of the barium salt and the
co-production of by-product Na2S.
The barium salt is recovered by filtration or centrifugation, and drying. The Na2S is recovered by
evaporation of the solution, crystallization of the Na2S
in the trihydrate form, centrifusion and drying.
The processing steps required for the production
of BaS from barite ore include a high temperature
rotary kiln step for the reduction of barite, grinding of
the crude BaS or black ash and leaching of soluble
BaS from the black ash in a multi-stage leach circuit.
These processing steps are different than those used in
the production of any of the barium chemicals, with the
possible exception of BaO, thereby minimizing the
49
MONOHYDRATE
Figure 9. Simplified Flow Plant for Barium Oxide and Barium Hydroxide Production.
possibility of their use in producing multiple products.
Production of BaCb from BaS and HC1 involves
the production of a soluble BaCh and by-product HzS.
Recovery of the BaCh from solution involves evapo
ration, filtration, vacuum crystallization, product
filtration and drying. These processing steps are dif
ferent than those used in the production of the other
barium chemicals. In addition, HC1 and BaCh are
extremely corrosive, requiring special materials of
construction for all equipment and piping in contact
with them. Finally, conversion of the by-product HiS
to saleable NazS requires an additional conversion
step, reaction with NaOH. All of these factors mini
mize the potential for the production of multiple
products which include BaCh in a single plant.
Barium oxide is produced in a high temperature
rotary kiln or fluidized bed reactor by the reduction of
in the presence of carbon. While the process-
Table 27
Operating Parameters
Barium/Hydroxide Production
PLANT CAPACITY:
3,000 t/a BaO
(1,500 t/a normal operation)
RAW MATERIALS:
Barium Carbonate
1,950 t/a
UTILITIES:
Natural Gas
Electricity
800 m 37d
120 kW
PRODUCTS:
Barium Oxide
Barium Hydroxide Octahydrate
Barium Hydroxide Monohydrate
500 t/a
1,030 t/a
620 t/a
24 h/d
330 d/a
OPERATION:
STAFFING:
50
Operations, Maintenance
and Administration
12
Barite and Fluorspar in Ontario
ing steps appear to be similar to those used in the pro
duction of BaS (black ash), the production of both
products in a single rotary kiln plant was not consid
ered practical because of the concern of contamination
of the BaO with residual BaS or barite ore. If the fluidized bed process for the production of BaS from
barite ore and natural gas can be shown to be com
mercially demonstrated and competitive, the
co-production of BaS and BaO in a common plant
might be possible as contamination concerns would
be minimized.
Even though the potential for the production of
multiple barium chemicals in a single process unit
was found to be limited and only applicable to barium
carbonate and barium sulphate, a production complex
capable of producing BaS, BaCOs/BaSCU, BaCh and
BaCVBa(OH)2 would have a great deal of flexibility for
the production of other specialty chemicals to meet
low volume, value-added opportunities:
* the production of Ba(NO3)2 from BaSO4 and
HNO3
* the production of high purity BaCh, BaSO4 or
Ba(NOs)2 from BaCOa and the appropriate
sodium salt or inorganic acid
* the production of lithopone, a white pigment
containing BaSO4 and ZnS, from BaS solution
and ZnSO4
* the production of barium peroxide by the con
trolled heating of BaO in an air/oxygen
atmosphere.
Production Costs
The production costs for the barium chemicals under
consideration are dependent on the capital cost of the
facilities, the cost of raw materials, the plant operat
ing costs, the financial parameters assumed for
recovery of invested capital, product marketing costs
and the capacity of the production facilities.
Preliminary capital cost estimates were prepared
for each production facility discussed in the previous
section of this report, as presented in Table 28.
The capital costs are considered preliminary esti
mates as they were factored from budget prices for
individual items of process equipment using estab
lished estimating procedures. The proposed barium
chemicals facility is a stand-alone, grass-roots facil
ity with raw materials unloading and storage facilities,
process facilities to produce the listed chemicals in
dedicated process units, product storage, packaging
and loadout systems and all offsite/utility systems
needed to operate the facility. A single evapora
tion/crystallization unit is provided to recover
by-product sodium sulphate from the BaCOs, BaCh
and BaSO4 operations. The costs of all common facil
ities have been apportioned to the individual
production units on the basis of the requirements of
each unit so that production costs could be determined
for the individual barium chemicals.
Preliminary information on the sizes or design
capacities of major items of equipment and typical
purchase costs are provided in Appendix B.
Preliminary production cost estimates were deter
mined for each of the barium chemicals under
consideration, as summarized in Table 29A.
The production cost of each chemical includes the
cost of raw materials, the cost of plant utilities, oper
ating and maintenance costs, local taxes and insurance,
a capital recovery charge of 209fc per year of initial
capital cost less by-product credits where applicable.
The above production costs are based on a cost of
barite, delivered to the chemicals plant, of S108 per
tonne. This is considered to be optimistic as the entire
30,000 tonnes per year of barite would have to be pro
duced in a single barite production plant in the Thunder
Bay area. Established barite reserves in the area may
not be adequate to provide sufficient ore for the pro
duction of 30,000 tonnes per year of high quality barite
Table 28
Estimated Capital Cost for Different Barium Chemical Production Units
Chemical
Plant Capacity
Estimated
Production Unit
t/a
Capital Cost,Smillion
BaS
BaCO3
BaCI 2
BaSO4
BaO
TOTAL FACILITY
Options for Barium Chemicals Production
20,000
16,000
5,000
1,500
3,000
11
7
4.8
1.6
4.6
29
51
Table 29A
Preliminary Production Costs for Different Barium Chemicals
Chemical
BaS
BaCOs
BaCI 2
BaSO4
- dedicated plant
- multi-product
plant
BaO
Ba(OH) 2
- Monohydrate
- Octahydrate
Normal
Production
t/a
Production
Cost, S/t
413
388
592
567
1,098
4,400
15,600
12,000
1,950
3,500
sales
captive
sales
captive
sales
Reported
Market ValueS/t
N/A
550-800
500-840
1,000
1,000
1,085 sales
815 sales
800
800
500
1,890 sales
N/A
620
1,030
1,535 sales
920 sales
1100-1250
N/A
BaSO4 , minimum). The barium chemicals plant
would be located in Thunder Bay in this case to min
imize shipping costs for the barite.
A more realistic case to consider is the use of barite
recovered from Hemlo gold mill tailings or barite min
erals produced at two 15,000 tonnes per year
production plants, one in the Thunder Bay area and one
in the Matachewan area, for the production of the bar
ium chemicals. The barium chemicals plant, in this
case, would be centrally located to be closer to the
barium chemicals market, thereby necessitating ship
ment of the barite from the production plants to the
chemicals plant. The estimated production and ship
ping cost for barite is in the range of S180 to 3210 per
tonne. With this higher cost feedstock, the production
cost of the barium chemicals increases proportional
ly, illustrated in Table 29B.
All new equipment was assumed in preparing cap
ital cost estimates for the barium chemicals facility. For
certain items of equipment, in particular the rotary
kiln in the BaS plant, product filters, centrifuges, dry
ers and grinding mills, the potential exists for utilizing
used, reconditioned equipment, thereby reducing the
capital cost of the production facilities. Selective use
of reconditioned equipment throughout the chemicals
facility would reduce the overall capital cost by only
5 to 109fc as direct equipment costs only contribute 25
to 30^o of the total cost of a typical chemicals project.
A reduction in capital cost of this magnitude would
not dramatically affect the production cost of the bar
ium chemicals as capital-related costs only make up a
portion of the estimated production costs. Indicated
production costs would only be reduced 2 to 39fc as a
result of the selective use of reconditioned equipment.
Table 29B
Production Costs for Barium Chemicals Using Higher Cost Feed Stock
Chemical
BaS (captive)
BaCOs (sales)
BaCI 2
BaSO4
- dedicated plant
- multi-product plant
BaO
Ba(OH) 2
- Monohydrate
- Octahydrate
52
Plant Gate Production Cost, S/t
Barite @ S108/t
Barite @ S180-210/t
388
592
1,098
495-540
685-725
1,185-1,220
1,165-1,200
1,085
815
1,890
895-930
2,010-2,060
1,535
920
1,635-1,675
980-1,000
Barite and Fluorspar in Ontario
Basis for Capital and Production
Cost Estimates
Preliminary capital cost estimates were developed
for each barium chemical production unit (BaS, BaCOs,
BaCh, BaSO4 and BaO7Ba(OH)2), as part of a grass
roots barium chemicals production complex. Each
barium chemical is produced in a dedicated production
unit with dedicated raw materials storage and product
storage facilities. Common support facilities are pro
vided for the chemicals complex. These include raw
materials unloading systems, product packaging and
loadout systems, offsite and utility systems needed to
operate the facility and effluent treatment/environmental
control systems. In addition, a single evaporation/crys
tallization unit is provided to recover by-product NaaS
for sale from the BaCOa, BaCh and BaSCu operations.
The cost of all common facilities have been appor
tioned to the individual production units on the basis of
the requirements of each unit so that production costs
can be determined for the individual barium chemicals.
The estimated capital costs were based on budget
prices for major items of process equipment plus fac
tors for installation, piping, instrumentation, electrics,
structural steel and concrete, site services, process
buildings, engineering and construction, spare parts
and startup allowances and overall project contingen
cies, using established estimating procedures. No
allowances were included for land acquisition, for
major warehousing of raw materials or final products
or for environmental assessment costs.
The production cost estimate for each barium chem
ical includes the cost of raw materials, the cost of
plant utilities (natural gas, electricity, water), operat
ing and maintenance costs (labour, replacement parts,
supplies), local taxes and insurance, a capital recov
ery charge of 209fc per year of initial capital cost, less
by-product credits where applicable. Table 30 shows
the main cost parameters used in determining the pro
duction cost for each barium chemical.
A capital recovery factor of 209fc per year was
selected as it represents the minimum return on capi-
Table 30
Main Cost Parameters Used in Determining Production for Barium Chemicals
RAW MATERIALS
Barite
Na2CO3
Sl087t, base price, single mill (S1 80-21 0/t from
alternate sources, Hemlo or two smaller
processing mills)
S225A
N32SO4
HCI (32 0Xo)
NaOH (50 0Xo)
Coal (low sulphur)
UTILITIES
Natural Gas
Electricity
Treated Water
S 80/t
S1 20/1 03m 3
SO.OS/kWh
Operations and Administration Staff
Manpower count for each plant,
S40,0007annum average
Maintenance Parts and Labour
40Xo of capital cost/yr
Taxes and Insurance
1 0Xo of capital cost/yr
Operating Supplies
100Xo nominal of the cost of
utilities, labour and maintenance
Capital Recovery Charge
20pXo of capital cost/yr
By-Product Credit
S2507t to be marketed primarily to pulp and
paper companies as a replacement for
sodium sulphate in Kraft mills.
Marketing Cost
An allowance of S257t of net saleable product.
Options for Barium Chemicals Production
53
Table 31
Production Cost Summary
Barium Sulphide
PLANT CAPACITY:
20,000 tonnes per year BaS
CAPITAL COST:
S11.000,000
PRODUCTION COST
ANNUAL COST,
UNIT COST,
S
S/t BaS
Raw Materials- Barite
- Coal
3,240,000.
600,000.
162.00
30.00
Utilities- Natural Gas
- Electricity
- Water
Operations and Administration Staff
Maintenance Labour and Parts
Taxes and Insurance
Operating Supplies
Capital Recovery
277,000.
48,000.
66,000.
640,000.
442,000.
110,000.
137,000.
2,200,000.
13.85
2.40
3.30
32.00
22.10
5.50
6.85
110.00
Total Production Cost
7,760,000.
388.00
Marketing Cost (for net sales)
25.00
Plant Gate Price
tal expected by a private investor. A capital recovery
factor of 209fc, or a simple payback of 5.0 years,
equates approximately to an after-tax discounted cash
flow return on investment of 15*^, in constant dollars.
The estimated production costs do not include prod
uct shipping costs to potential customers, dealer
markups or the impact of the Goods and Services Tax.
Market prices for barium chemicals discussed in
this section of the report, as an indication of the eco
nomic potential for the production of individual
materials, were taken from the Law, Sigurdson & Asso
ciates and SRI International report (1989).
Barium Sulphide
The estimated capital cost of the BaS plant, with a
production capacity of 20,000 tonnes per year of BaS
(as BaS), is Sil million. The estimated production
cost of BaS, with a base barite price of S108 per tonne,
is S388 per tonne for captive use material and S413 per
tonne for net sales product, as presented in Table 31.
In order to realize the S108 per tonne production and
delivery cost for barite, a single mineral processing
mill with a capacity of 30,000 tonnes per year of high
quality barite would be required. Both the processing
mill and the chemicals production facility would have
to be located in the Thunder Bay area, close to estab
54
413.00
lished mineral deposits, to minimize barite trans
portation costs.
Processing of higher cost barite, such as barite
recovered from Hemlo area gold mill tailings or barite
produced in two smaller processing mills (15,000
tonnes per year mills at Thunder Bay and Matachewan)
and shipped to a central chemicals facility, would
result in higher cost barium sulphite, as shown in
Table 32.
Although market values are not reported regularly
for BaS, primarily as the bulk of the material is for cap
tive use, it is believed that the indicated production
cost of S388 to 413 per tonne (with S108 per tonne
barite) is competitive with current supplies. The major
consideration, however, is the impact of this BaS cost
Table 32
Barium Sulphide Production Cost
Barite @ Sl087t
S3887t captive use
S413/1 sales
Barite @ S180-210/t
S495-5407t captive use
S520-5657t sales
Barite and Fluorspar in Ontario
Table 33
Production Cost Summary
Barium Carbonate
PLANT CAPACITY:
16,000 t/a BaCO3
(13,950 t/a normal operation)
CAPITAL COST:
S7,000,000
PRODUCTION COST
ANNUAL COST,
S
UNIT COST,
S/t BaCOs
Raw Materials- BaS Solution
- Sodium Carbonate
4,656,000.
1,688,000.
333.76
121.00
Utilities- Natural Gas
- Electricity
- Water
Operations and Administration Staff
Maintenance Labour and Parts
Taxes and Insurance
Operating Supplies
Capital Recovery
396,000.
79,000.
20,000.
560,000.
281,000.
70,000.
135,000.
1,400,000.
28.38
5.66
1.43
40.14
20.14
5.02
9.68
100.36
Total Production Cost
9,285,000.
665.57
(1,375,000.)
(98.57)
7,910,000.
567.00
By-Product Na2S Credit
Net Production Cost
Marketing cost (for net sales)
25.00
Plant Gate Price
on the production cost of the other barium chemicals
as BaS is the precursor of these materials. Net sales of
BaS are assumed to be only 4,400 tonnes per year;
this quantity would probably be reduced as the demand
for other value-added barium chemicals increases.
Barium Carbonate
The estimated capital cost for the BaCOs plant,
with a production capacity of 16,000 tonnes per year
of BaCOs, is S7 million. The estimated production
cost of BaCOs is S567 per tonne for captive use mate
rial and S592 per tonne for net sales product, relative
to the base barite price of 5108 per tonne, as present
ed in Table 33. This price increases substantially as the
price of barite ore increases to the range of S180 to 210
per tonne, as shown in Table 34.
Normal operating capacity in the BaCOs plant is
assumed to be 13,950 tonnes per year of BaCCh,
12,000 tonnes per year for sales and 1,950 tonnes per
year for captive use in the production of BaO and
Ba(OH)2 .
Market values for BaCOa are reported to be in the
Options for Barium Chemicals Production
592.00
range of S550 to S800 Cdn per tonne for high grade
material supplied in Canada and the North-Eastern
United States, with Chinese material costing S550 to
S600 per tonne and European product costing S800
per tonne. U.S. quoted list prices are in the range of
S740 Cdn per tonne, FOB plant in Georgia.
Based on this information, there appears to be an
economic potential for the production of BaCOa and
the precursor BaS in Ontario for marketing in Cana
da and the North-Eastern United States provided that
competitive barite ore prices (below about S120 to
Table 34
Barium Carbonate Production Cost
Barite @ S1087I
(BaS @ S3887t)
S5677t captive use
S5927t sales
Barite @ S180-2107t
(BaS @ S495-5407t)
S660-7007t captive use
S685-7257t sales
55
Table 35
Production Cost Summary
Barium Chloride
PLANT CAPACITY:
CAPITAL COST:
5,000 T/A BAC1 2
(3,500 t/a normal operation)
S4,800,000
PRODUCTION COST
Raw Materials- BaS Sludge
- Hydrochloric Acid
- Sodium Hydroxide
Utilities- Natural Gas
- Electricity
- Water
Operations and Administration Staff
Maintenance Labour and Parts
Taxes and Insurance
Operating Supplies
Capital Recovery
Total Production Cost
By-Product Na2S Credit
Net Production Cost
Marketing Cost
Plant Gate Price
- as Barium Chloride
- as Barium Chloride Dihydrate
S150 per tonne), delivered to the chemicals plant, can
be realized. A production facility capable of produc
ing 15,000 to 20,000 tonnes per year of barium
sulphide (6,000 to 8,000 tonnes per year net sales)
and 10,000 to 15,000 tonnes per year of barium car
bonate is considered to be an economic size. Unit
production costs increase rapidly in smaller sized
plants as capital recovery charges and fixed operating
costs remain relatively constant, representing an ever
increasing portion of the unit production cost as plant
production rate is reduced.
ANNUAL COST,
S
UNIT COST,
S/t BaCh
1,106,000.
674,000.
405,000.
316.00
192.57
115.72
158,000.
48,000.
5,000.
400,000.
45.14
13.72
1.43
960,000.
114.29
54.86
13.72
24.13
274.27
4,080,500.
1,165.85
192,000.
48,000.
84,500.
(92.85)
(325,000.)
3,755,000.
1,073.00
25.00
1,098.00
937.00
Barium Chloride
The estimated capital cost for the BaCh plant, with
a production capacity of 5,000 tonnes per year of
BaCh, is S4.8 million. The estimated production cost
for BaCh, for a normal operating capacity of 3,500
tonnes per year, is presented in Table 35. An overall
production cost (or plant gate price) of S l,098 per
tonne for anhydrous barium chloride or S937 per tonne
for BaCh-2H2O is indicated, relative to the base barite
price of S108 per tonne. These prices increase mod
erately as the price of barite increases to the range of
S180 to S210 per tonne, as presented in Table 36.
Table 36
Barium Chloride Production Cost
Barite @
(BaS @ S388A)
Barite @ S180-210/t
(BaS @ S495-5407t)
56
Anhydrous
Dihydrate
Sl,0987t
S9377t
S1,185-1,220A
Sl,010-1,0457t
Barite and Fluorspar in Ontario
Market values for anhydrous BaCh are reported to
be in the range of S500 to S840 Cdn per tonne, based
largely on product purity. Quoted prices for U.S. and
European material, which are high quality product,
are at the upper end of this price range, that is, S800
to S840 per tonne.
Even if 3800 to S840 per tonne can be realized for
BaCh produced in an Ontario based chemical facili
ty, it does not appear that its production has any
immediate economic potential. Indicated production
costs are in the range of S l, 100 per tonne (anhydrous
basis) even with optimistically priced barite ore.
Barium Sulphate
The estimated capital cost of a dedicated BaSO4
plant, with a production capacity of 1,500 tonnes per
year of barium sulphate, is S 1.6 million. The estimat
ed production cost for barium sulphate in a dedicated
plant, for a normal operating capacity of l ,000 tonnes
per year, is presented in Table 37. A plant gate pro
duction price of 31,085 per tonne is estimated, relative
to the base barite price of S108 per tonne. This price
increases moderately with increased barite prices.
As an option, the co-production of BaCOs and
BaSO4 in a single production unit (multi-product plant)
was considered as a means of reducing the produc
tion cost of the BaSO4. This type of operation appears
to be feasible as the processing steps for the produc
tion of BaCOs and BaSO4 are similar, with the main
difference being in the use of NaiCOa as raw materi
al for the production of BaCOa and NazSCU for BaSCU.
The estimated capital cost of the BaCCb/ BaSO4 plant,
with a combined capacity of 16,000 tonnes per year
BaCOa and 1,500 tonnes per year BaSO4, is S8.4 mil
lion. The estimated production costs for the BaCOa
and BaSO4, for normal operating capacities of 13,950
tonnes per year BaCOa and 1,000 tonnes per year
BaSO4, are presented in Table 38. By keeping the pro
duction cost for BaCOa the same as in the dedicated
plant situation, a plant gate production price for BaSO4
of S815 per tonne is indicated.
This is significantly lower than in the dedicated
plant case as substantial operating cost savings are
realized.
Table 37
Production Cost Summary
Barium Sulphate
PLANT CAPACITY:
1 .500 T/A BASO4
(1,000 t/a normal operation)
CAPITAL COST:
S1, 600,000
PRODUCTION COST
ANNUAL COST,
S
UNIT COST,
S/t BaSO4
Raw Materials- BaS Solution
- Sodium Sulphate
291,000
92,000
291.00
92.00
Utilities- Natural Gas
79,000
40,000
3,000
200,000
62,000
16,000
39,000
320,000
79.00
40.00
3.00
200.00
62.00
16.00
39.00
320.00
1,142,000
1,142.00
- Electricity
- Water
Operations and Administration Staff
Maintenance Labour and Parts
Taxes and Insurance
Operating Supplies
Capital Recovery
Total Production Cost
By-Product NaaS Credit
Net Production Cost
Marketing Cost
Plant Gate Price
Options for Barium Chemicals Production
(82,000)
1,060,000
(82.00)
1,060.00
25.00
1,085.00
57
Table 38
Production Cost Summary
Barium Carbonate and Sulphate in Single Plant
PLANT CAPACITY:
16,000 t/a BaCO3 + 1,500 t/a BaSO4
(13,950 t/a and 1,000 t/a normal operation)
CAPITAL COST:
S8,400,000
PRODUCTION COST
ANNUAL COST,
BaCOa S
ANNUAL COST,
BaSO4 S
Raw Materials- BaS Solution
- Sodium Carbonate
- Sodium Sulphate
4,656,000
1,688,000
-
291,000
92,000
Utilities- Natural Gas
- Electricity
- Water
Operations S Administration Staff
Maintenance Labour and Parts
Taxes and Insurance
Operating Supplies
Capital Recovery
396,000
79,000
20,000
560,000
281,000
70,000
135,000
1,400,000
79,000
40,000
3,000
55,000
14,000
18,000
280,000
Total Production Cost
9,285,000
872,000
(1,375,000)
(82,000)
7,910,000
790,000
By-Product Na2S Credit
Net Production Cost
Net Production Cost, S/t
567.00
790.00
25.00
25.00
592.00
815.00
Marketing Cost (net sales), S/t
Plant Gate Price, S/t
Table 39 is a summary of barium sulphate produc
tion costs (plant gate price) as a function of barite
price.
Market values for BaSO4 are reported to be in the
range of 5800 Cdn per tonne for synthetic, pigment and
filler grade material. Based on this information, it
does not appear that there is any significant econom
ic potential for the production of BaSO4 in an
Ontario-based chemical facility even with optimisti
cally priced barite ore. However, production of BaS04
in a multi-product BaCOs plant might be considered
to meet short term demands for high quality, value
added product.
Table 39
Barium Sulphate Production Cost
Barite @
(BaS @ SSSS/t)
Barite @
Dedicated
Plant
Multi-Purpose
Plant
SLOSS/t
S895-930A
(BaS @ S495-540A)
58
Barite and Fluorspar in Ontario
Table 40
Production Cost Summary
Barium Oxide/Hydroxide
PLANT CAPACITY:
3,000 t/a BaO
(1,500 t/a normal operation)
CAPITAL COST:
S4,600,000
PRODUCTION COST
Raw Materials- Barium Carbonate
Utilities- Natural Gas
- Electricity
- Water
Operations and Administration Staff
Maintenance Labour and Parts
Taxes and Insurance
Operating Supplies
Capital Recovery
Total Production Cost
Marketing Cost
Plant Gate Price
- as Barium Oxide
- as Barium Hydroxide Monohydrate
- as Barium Hydroxide Octahydrate
ANNUAL COST,
UNIT COST,
S
S/t BaO
1,105,500.
737.00
32,000.
48,000
3,000.
400,000.
183,000.
46,000.
60,000.
920,000.
21.33
32.00
2.00
266.67
122.00
30.67
40.00
613.33
2,797,500.
1,865.00
25.00
1,890.00
1,535.00
920.00
Barium Oxide/Hydroxide
The estimated capital cost for a BaO7Ba(OH)2 plant,
with a production capacity of 3,000 tonnes per year of
BaO equivalent (BaO plus Ba(OH) 2), is S4.6 million.
The estimated production costs for barium oxide and
hydroxides, for a normal operating capacity of 1,500
tonnes per year barium oxide equivalent, are present
ed in Table 40. Plant gate production prices of S l,890
per tonne for BaO, S l,535 per tonne for Ba(OH)2.H2O
and S920 per tonne for Ba(OH) 2 -8H2O are indicated.
These prices increase moderately with increased barite
prices, as shown in Table 41.
Market values for Ba(OH)2-H2O, the highest volume
chemical of the BaO7Ba(OH)2 family of chemicals,
are reported to be in the range of S l, 100 to 31,200
per tonne for high quality material. As the product
cannot be produced economically at this price in an
Ontario based chemicals facility, even with opti
mistically priced barite, there does not appear to be any
significant economic potential for its production.
Options for Barium Chemicals Production
59
Table 41
Barium Oxide Production Cost
Barite @ SlOS/t
(BaCO3 @ S5677t)
Barite @ S180-210/t
(BaCOa @ S660-7007t)
Barium Hydroxide Production Cost
Barite @ $108/t
(BaCO3 @
Barite @ S1 80-21 0/t
(BaCO3 @ S660-7007t)
60
Sl,8907t
S2,010-2,060/t
Monohydrate
Octahydrate
S1 ,535/t
S9207t
S1 ,635-1 ,675/t
S980-1 ,000/t
Barite and Fluorspar in Ontario
5. Options for
Fluorspar
Production
Options for Fluorspar Production
Production Options
The North American market for fluorspar includes
the metallurgical and acid grade material. Major pro
ducers in Canada, the United States and Mexico have
a combined production capacity of approximately l .4
million tonnes, reported for 1987 (Prud'homme 1989).
Metallurgical grade material, generally above 609fc
Ca?2 content, is supplied to steel mills. Acid grade
material, with a minimum of 979fc CaFz content, is
used mainly for HF production and alumina refining.
Total imports to Canada amounted to 194,000 tonnes
(all material) in 1988, of which about 70*fo is report
ed to be acid grade material (Law, Sigurdson and
Associates and SRI International 1989). Most of this
is obtained from Mexico although the recently com
missioned plant of St. Lawrence Fluorspar in
Newfoundland has a capacity of 80,000 tonnes per
year. A major consumer in Ontario is the Allied Sig
nal plant in Amherstburg.
Prud'homme 1989 has noted that the stringent spec
ifications for acid grade material have created a slight
price increase, and that "Producers of high grade
filtercake are in a better position to absorb any fluc
tuations in demand."
Considering the nature of known fluorspar deposits
in Ontario and the volume of imported material, the
most favourable production option in Ontario appears
to be for acid grade material. Low shipping costs to an
Ontario based consumer should outweigh the probably
lower production costs of the major suppliers of
imported material.
The known resources in Ontario preclude consid
eration of a large production facility. Based on typical
grades of deposits and dispersion of the vein struc
tures, a production rate of 15,000 tonnes per year is
considered reasonable for initial operation of a cen
tralized processing plant. This would entail mining of
up to 50,000 tonnes per year of material containing an
average of 509fc CaFi. A favourable location would
be in South-Eastern Ontario near the town of Madoc.
Such a plant would be designed to produce acidgrade fluorspar. Depending on the nature of material
mined, barite might also be produced as a by-product.
Studies by CANMET with samples of fluorspar
from many Canadian locations showed a difficulty in
upgrading to acid-grade material (Collings and
Andrews 1988b). Gravity separation methods pro
duced concentrates often below 90^o CaFi due to the
difficulty in separating fluorspar from other minerals
having similar characteristics. Flotation tests illus
trated the potential of the method for producing the
required grade of concentrate. Barite was removed by
61
flotation prior to fluorspar recovery from samples con
taining both minerals.
A processing plant designed to treat a variety of
ores, as mined from several veins, is proposed as a
centrally located facility. Processes selected to achieve
the maximum possible upgrading, by removal of con
taminants, are included.
In the proposed mill, fluorspar is crushed and
reduced by hammer mill prior to initial recovery by jigs
and tables. A high grade gravity concentrate may be
produced if the mineralogy of the ore is suitable.
Rejects from the gravity circuit are ground to less than
300 |im prior to removal of metal sulphides (pyrite
and others) and barite in flotation circuits. A final
flotation stage will recover a fluorspar concentrate.
Further upgrading of the concentrate will be achieved
by high intensity magnetic separation. The concen
trate will be filtered and dried for shipment. The
flowsheet is illustrated in Figure 10.
Specifications
Acid Grade Fluorspar
The specifications for acid grade fluorspar are set
by the consumers and are based on level of contami
nants and size analysis. A typical specification is
illustrated in Table 42.
Material meeting these specifications is generally
produced by plants employing flotation, but not all
sources can satisfy the restrictions which may be
imposed on minor levels of contaminants including
lead, phosphorus and arsenic.
Metallurgical Grade Fluorspar
The specifications for fluorspar sold as metallurgical
grade material vary according to the demands of the
particular consumers, mainly steel plants. Generally a
minimum level for (CaF2) content is 60*26, and size
analysis is specified. Reported specifications for three
Ontario steel plants (Collings and Andrews 1988b)
indicate a higher required level of CaF2 between 75 and
809fc. Specifications for contaminants by these con
sumers range as shown in Table 43.
Effective CaF2 equals Total CaF2 minus 2.5 times
silica content (McKetta and Cunningham 1976).
Table 42
Typical Specification for Acid Grade Fluorspar
Calcium fluoride
Silica
Calcium carbonate
Sulphur
Heavy metal oxides
Particle size
970Xo
10/0
1 .2507o
o. 030/0
Q.4%
150
minimum
maximum
maximum
maximum
maximum
(im *
*References Collings and Andrews 1988b; Law, Sigurdson and Associates SRI International 1989.
Table 43
Typical Specification for Metallurgical Grade Fluorspar
Calcium fluoride (Effective)
Silica
Calcium carbonate
Sulphur
Lead
75-800/0
2-60/0
2-30/0
0.01-1.00/0
0.02-0.250/0
minimum
maximum
maximum
maximum
maximum
*References Collings and Andrews 1988b; Law, Sigurdson and Associates SRI International 1989.
62
Barite and fluorspar in Ontario
OPEN PIT MINE
WASTE ROCK
40-SOX CoF2
i
JAW CRUSHER TO 2*
CLAY. SUMES
LOG WASHER
SURGE BIN
SIZE REDUCTION
(HAMMERMILL)
l PRODUCT -1/2'
fTJUORITE
JIGS
CONC.
^
^
3 uutlMC TADLTJIAKINC TADLC-
v
TAILINGS
<————————————
1,
FLUORSPAR GRAVITY ^
CONCENTRATE
X
JL
f"
ROD MILL TO -300 urn
w —300 urn
^————————
PYRITE ROUGHER FLOTN.
PYRITE CONC.
CONC.
CONDITIONER
BARITE ROUGHER FLOTN.
CONC.
^
BARITE CLEANERS
6 STAGES
'
FLUORITE ROUGHER FLOTN.
CONC.
——>
;
t
p
1 f
BARITE FLOTATION
CONCEN TRATE
k
FLUORITE CLEANERS
8 STAGES
\ f
)r
)r
<—————————————————————————————————
\ f
FLOTATION TAILINGS
^
^
^^
r
HIGH INTENSITY
MAG. SEPARATION
^
^
FLUORITE CONC. 4-97X
)f
REJE:CTS
\r
cii TDATinjki Aurt novnjn
^FLUORSPAR TO
CHEMICAL PLANT
Figure 10. Fluorspar Recovery from Vein Mine.
Options for Fluorspar Production
63
Size analysis specifications appear to restrict the
quantity of fine and coarse fractions.
Production Costs
S147 per tonne of product. The total production cost
including repayment of capital (within five years) is
estimated to be S198 per tonne of product.
Metallurgical Grade Material
Acid Grade Material
A proposed fluorspar processing plant would be
located centrally to treat ores mined from a number of
vein deposits in the Madoc area. The production rate
considered is 15,000 tonnes per year of fluorspar con
centrate meeting acid grade specifications.
The estimated capital cost of the facility is approx
imately S3.8 million. Mining costs for development of
deposits are not included and it is assumed that min
ing on a contract basis, or by owner-operators of small
deposits, will supply feed to the plant. Preliminary
information on the sizes of major items of equipment
and typical purchase costs are provided in Appendix
C. A total of 14 personnel are required for plant oper
ation and administration, plus contractors engaged in
mining and trucking. The estimated production cost is
presented in Table 44. The direct operating cost,
including mining and ore haulage, is approximately
The production of metallurgical grade fluorspar
from the known Ontario deposits has not been con
sidered in detail due to the small volume and dispersed
nature of the deposits, and the limited market poten
tial. Metallurgical grade material could be produced by
a simple gravity processing plant or as a secondary
product from a plant designed to produce acid grade
material as a primary concentrate.
A very preliminary estimate of capital cost is
approximately S2 million for a plant designed to treat
the proposed mine output of 46,000 tonnes per year,
using gravity recovery only. The direct operating cost
would be in the order of S70 per tonne of product
(707o CaFi) and the total production cost, including
capital repayment, approximately S90 per tonne.
Table 44
Mill Production Cost Summary
Fluorspar Mill Open Pit Mine
ANNUAL
COST, S
UNIT COST,
S/t ore
UNIT COST,
S/t Product
Payroll
582,000
12.65
38.80
Reagents and Supplies
391,000
8.50
26.07
30,000
0.65
2.00
Power and Fuel
171,000
3.72
11.40
Contract Mining
644,000
14.00
42.93
Ore Haulage to Mill
18,400
0.40
1.23
Insurance, taxes etc
50,000
1.09
3.33
General
122,000
2.65
8.13
Contingency
200,840
4.37
13.39
2,209,240
48.03
147.28
760,700
16.54
50.71
2,969,940
64.56
198.00
Maintenance Supplies
Direct Operating Cost
Capital Repayment
Total Production Cost
Note: Milling Rate = 46,000 tonnes per year
Product Rate = 15,000 tonnes per year
64
Barite and Fluorspar in Ontario
6. Implications
for Small
Mines
Custom Milling
The deposits of barite and fluorspar occurring in
Ontario are generally small, often narrow vein deposits.
The proposed production options for the major deposits
are designed on the basis of centrally located pro
cessing plants in order to optimize costs and handling
of material. The proposed location of the plants would
also allow smaller quantities of ore, supplied by inde
pendent operators in the immediate area, to be treated
on a custom milling basis.
Barite
A barite processing plant located in the Thunder
Bay area could provide a valuable custom milling
opportunity. The plant as proposed would be designed
to receive ore from several vein deposits in order to
satisfy either of the indicated production rates of
15,000 tonnes per year or 30,000 tonnes per year.
Since ore from the major deposits will be trucked to
the crushing station at the plant, other suppliers could
quite feasibly use the same approach. A number of
small vein deposits are known to occur within the dis
trict and most of them are probably within economic
haulage distance of a suitable mill site.
The known deposits generally contain a high pro
portion of barite and contaminants seem to be fairly
constant thus predictable. It is possible that other
small deposits worked by independents or owneroperators could supply small portions of the feed to
such a mill.
Supplies of custom ore could be stockpiled at the
mill site to allow a campaign type operation or could
be blended with the regular mine production if simi
lar in grade. The campaign method is probably better
suited to this project where the milling operation is not
continuous and payment for custom ore may depend on
recovered mineral quantities.
For the North-Eastern region of the province the
same possibilities exist for custom ore milling except
that the distances between some of the noted deposits
tend to be greater. The viability of a processing facil
ity in this area will in part depend on the availability
of ore supply from the existing mining operations.
Ore from other known deposits appears to be com
patible with the present ore supply and this does
present an opportunity to develop small deposits if
they are found within an economic haulage radius.
The proposed plant for this area is also designed for
two shifts per day of operation, five days per week, so
it could easily accommodate a fluctuating supply of
additional ore, and allow process changes between
campaigns.
Implications for Small Mines
65
The South-Eastern region could probably benefit
from the services of a custom milling operation; it is
assumed that some of the available small reserves
could be mined by local owners for treatment at a
nearby plant. However, justification for such an instal
lation requires considerably more work and data
collection to develop a regional reserve estimate.
Fluorspar
The major occurrences of fluorspar are stated to be
in South-Eastern Ontario in the vicinity of Madoc,
and the proposed fluorspar processing plant is sug
gested for this area. This plant would depend on supply
of ore from a number of separate vein deposits, prob
ably even at the relatively low production rate of
15,000 tonnes per year. While ownership of the
deposits has not been researched, it is likely that some
of these fall into the category of independent own
er/operators. As such, the proposed plant is, in part, a
custom mill.
The establishment of a plant in the area, designed
to treat a variety of deposits, will encourage explo
ration and development of other deposits by local
owners who could not afford to participate in the ini
tial enterprise. As with the barite plant, the design
allows for easy expansion of production and cam
paigning of separate ore supplies. The processes
included also allow rejection and/or recovery of oth
er minerals.
By-product Recovery
Barite at Hemlo
The three producing gold mines at Hemlo are min
ing ore from underground workings using modern,
cost effective techniques. These operations are prof
itable due to the gold content of the ore and the large
tonnage, efficient operations. In effect, the barite avail
able in the tailings of the Hemlo mills is mined at
zero cost. Unless there are easily worked, high grade
surface deposits of barite in the area, it is doubtful a
new or independent operation could produce barite at
a similar or lower cost than projected for the proposed
tailings treatment plant.
It is possible that other gold (or base metal) deposits
will be developed in the area, and possibly as small
operations. Ore from such potential operations may
contain barite, but it is unlikely that the barite content
would be considered in establishing the feasibility of
a new operation.
The operating gold mills are presently running at
capacity and there is a low probability that the option
of custom milling ore from other sources would be
entertained.
Fluorspar
Within Ontario there is no known current mining
operation where an ore is being processed which also
contains significant quantities of fluorspar. However,
there are mining and milling operations in areas where
fluorspar ore could be mined on a small scale (NorthWestern and South-Eastern Ontario).
While these existing mills do not have fluorspar
recovery circuits installed, it is quite probable that a
minor amount of additional equipment could be
installed to allow co-processing of a fluorspar sup
ply. Such a facility would allow crushing and grinding
of the custom ore in parallel operation or on a cam
paign basis. The use of either excess flotation capacity
or additional flotation equipment for fluorspar pro
cessing would then incur a fairly low level of new
capital expenditure.
The advantage to potential custom shippers would
be the available infrastructure, shared labour costs
and services of an existing plant.
Barite/Fluorspar Joint Recovery
The noted vein deposits of the Madoc area and some
occurrences in the Thunder Bay area contain both
barite and fluorspar. For the Madoc deposits mined
in the past, selective mining and/or hand sorting was
practised in order to separate the two minerals to a
66
Barite and Fluorspar in Ontario
maximum extent prior to processing. Guillet (1963)
reported that concentrates of both barite and fluorspar
were produced at the Noyes Mine.
The fluorspar processing plant proposed earlier in
this report includes processes to remove barite prior to
recovery of fluorspar. This would be a necessity for a
plant in the Madoc area in order to meet acid grade
fluorspar specifications.
With recent advances in the development of flota
tion chemicals, it is conceivable that such a plant
could process a variety of ores to produce acceptable
barite and fluorspar concentrates. This would be advan
tageous to operators of small mines where selective
mining is not effective or economic.
Plant operation would probably be controlled to
either process a fixed blend of ores or to combine ores
of widely different barite/fluorspar ratios. This would
suit small mine production where production rates
might fluctuate on a short term.
Implications for Small Mines
67
68
Barite and Fluorspar in Ontario
7, Conclusions
and
Recommen
dations
Conclusions and Recommendations
Conclusions
1. Development of a plant to produce 30,000 tonnes
per year of chemical grade barite appears practical
for several areas in the province, based on prelimi
nary information concerning resource volumes and
grade. The most attractive possibility is a facility
located near Thunder Bay, producing barite at an esti
mated cost of S108 per tonne.
2. Similar production rates for barite might be
achieved by mills at Hemlo or near Matachewan but
production costs will be higher. Current operations at
these locations may also restrict development or
impose added costs.
3. The production of BaS, BaCOa and possibly
BaSO4 in a multi-product carbonate/sulphate plant
appears to offer reasonable technical and economic
potential provided that low cost barite can be delivered
to the barium chemicals plant and that the reported
market prices for these chemicals are realistic for large
volume quantities. Production rates and plant gate
production costs for these chemicals, using S108 per
tonne barite are shown in Table 45.
4. The production of BaCh, BaO and Ba(OH)2 does
not appear to have any significant economic poten
tial as indicated production costs are well in excess of
reported market prices in Canada and the Eastern Unit
ed States even with low price barite.
5. Product transportation costs are significant and
siting of the barium chemicals plant relative to the
barite milling operation(s), existing transportation sys
tems and the barium chemicals marketplace is an
important consideration.
6. The most likely area for development of a
fluorspar processing facility appears to be in the region
near Madoc. Acid grade fluorspar could be produced
but the operation may be limited by the available min
eral resource. A cost developed for production of
15,000 tonnes per year of acid grade material is S198
per tonne.
7. The most attractive processing options for both
barite and fluorspar favour custom milling opportu
nities for small mine operators. The fluorspar plant
would also allow co-processing of barite-rich ore for
the possible production of two concentrates.
8. The costs developed for this study must be con
sidered as preliminary. They are based on a minimum
level of information concerning mineral deposits, met
allurgical testing and processing options. The
documents referenced have been relied upon implic
itly for all raw data.
69
Table 45
Production Rates and Plant Gate Costs for Barium Sulphide, Barium Carbonate
and Barium Sulphate
Production
Rate, t/a
Production
Cost, S/t
Barium Sulphide
- captive use
- net sales
15,600
4,400
413
Barium Carbonate
12,000
592
1,000
815
Barium Sulphate
Recommendations
1. It is recommended that additional work be con
ducted to establish the validity of the most attractive
options for barite and fluorspar production. The most
critical is the need to establish a base level of proven
and probable reserves of the economic minerals.
2. Following investigation of reserves, studies must
be conducted to:
* Test representative samples of the reserves to
develop efficient and cost effective metallur
gical processing routes;
* Examine potential mine and plant locations in
order to define costs of land acquisition, site
development, buildings, tailings disposal,
infrastructure and supply of services;
* Complete a market survey for the minerals
being considered;
* Conduct feasibility studies for the selected min
erals and processing options.
* Conduct a detailed feasibility study on pro
duction of the selected barium chemicals at
production rates determined by the results of
the market analysis and the barite mineral avail
ability/cost studies.
Only after these studies and investigations have
been completed can serious consideration be given to
proceeding with the development of barite and
fluorspar reserves in Ontario and to the consideration
of barium chemicals production to take advantage of
potential market opportunities in Canada and the East
ern United States.
3. Following successful completion of a feasibili
ty study to define the processing costs for high quality
barite (949fc BaSO4 minimum), chemicals production
studies must be conducted to:
* Better define the market opportunities for pri
mary barium chemicals (sulphide, carbonate
and sulphate) in Canada and the Eastern Unit
ed States in terms of probable volumes that
can be marketed and competitive prices that
can be realized.
* Examine potential chemical plant locations in
order to minimize barite ore, raw materials and
final product transportation costs.
* Examine the potential market for by-product
sodium sulphide.
70
Barite and Fluorspar in Ontario
Selected
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72
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Selected Bibliography
73
74
Barite and Fluorspar in Ontario
Appendix A
Barite Mill Processing Equipment
Major Items and Typical Costs (not installed)
1.Barite Mill, 30,000 tonnes per year Thunder Bay-Matachewan
EQUIPMENT NAME
SIZE
TYPICAL COST S
Jaw Crusher
24" x 36"
100,000
Hammer Mill
10" x 20"
50,000
Jig Duplex
24" x 36"
20,000
Shaking Table
Full Size
16,000
Rod Mill, 100 HP
5'Dia. x 10'
* 70,000
Flotation Cells
6 @ 1.4 m
360,000
Vacuum Filter
c/w Pumps
6' Dia. x 4 Disc
* 50,000
Rotary Dryer
c/w Fuel System
6' Dia. x 36'
*250,000
Building
12 m x 24 m
60,000
'Denotes used equipment price.
Appendix A
75
Appendix A
Barite Mill Processing Equipment
Major Items and Typical Costs (not installed)
2.Barite Mill, 30,000 tonnes per year, Hemlo Gold Mill Tailings
EQUIPMENT NAME
SIZE
TYPICAL COST
Flotation Cells
(Pyrite)
6 @ 5 m
3150,000
Flotation Cells
(Molybdenum)
6 @ 5 m
18 @ 1.4 m3
3150,000
270,000
Flotation Cells
(Barite)
6 @ 3 m
18 @ 0.7 m3
3120,000
126,000
Vacuum Filter
c/w Pumps
6' Dia. x 4 Disc
* 50,000
Rotary Dryer
c/w Fuel System
6' Dia. x 36'
* 250,000
Building
18 m x 43 m
170,000
'Denotes used equipment price.
76
Barite and Fluorspar in Ontario
Appendix B
Barium Chemicals Plant Equipment
Major Items and Typical Costs (not installed)
1.Barium Sulphide Plant
EQUIPMENT NAME
SIZE/CAPACITY
TYPICAL COST
Barite Mill
5.0 t/h, -1/2" to - 20 mesh
Rotary Kiln
c/w Fuel System'1, 250 0 C,
A Pollution Control
6' Dia. x 60',
Refractory Lined
Sulphide Grinder
3.2 t/h, Clinker to -20 mesh
Barite Silos (2)
12' Dia. x 32'
40,000 ea
Coal Silo
12' Dia. x 32'
40,000
Barite Feeder
4.0 t/h
40,000
Coal Feeder
0.5 t/h
20,000
BaS Solution Tanks (4)
c/w Agitators
8' Dia. x 14', SS
36,000 ea
Decant Tank
10' Dia. x 9', SS
24,000
BaS Storage Tanks (2)
c/w Agitators
12' Dia. x 20', SS
BaS Sludge Tank
c/w Agitator
8' Dia. x 14', SS
BaS Screen
3' Dia. Single Deck
Appendix B
100,000
1,400,000
40,000
40,000 ea
36,000
8,000
77
Appendix B
Barium Chemicals Plant Equipment
Major Items and Typical Costs (not installed)
2. Barium Carbonate C+ Sulphate) Plant
EQUIPMENT NAME
SIZE/CAPACITY
TYPICAL COST S
BaCOs Reaction Tank
c/w Agitator
8' Dia. x 14', SS
Vacuum Filters (2)
c/w Pumps
6' Dia. x 6', SS
BaCOa Paddle Dryer
450 sq ft heat
transfer area, SS
BaCOa Grinder
2.5 t/h, -1/16" to -10um
Na2S Evap/Crystallizer
10,000 kg/h evap, SS
400,000
Na2S Centrifuge
4 mS/h feed, 30 0Xo solids, SS
100,000
Na2S Paddle Dryer
90 sq ft area, SS
120,000
Na2C03 Silos (2)
12' Dia. x 32'
Na2COs Solution Tank
c/w Agitator
8' Dia. x 8', SS
24,000
BaS Solution Tank
c/w Agitator
12' Dia. x 14', SS
36,000
BaCOs Screen
3' Dia. Single Deck
8,000
Na2S Screen
2'6" Dia. Single Deck
6,000
BaCO3 Silos (2)
12' Dia. x 24'
35,000 ea
Na2S Silos (2)
12' Dia. x 32'
40,000 ea
Na2SO4 Solution Tank
8' Dia. x 8', SS
24,000
BaSO4 Silo
8' Dia. x 14'
20,000
78
36,000
60,000 ea
320,000
32,000
40,000 ea
Barite and Fluorspar in Ontario
Appendix B
Barium Chemicals Plant Equipment
Major Items and Typical Costs (not installed)
3. Barium Chloride Plant
EQUIPMENT NAME
SIZE/CAPACITY
BaCl2 Reaction Tank
c/w Agitator
6' Dia. x 6', Lined
BaCI 2 Solution
Filters (2)
10 USgpm cont.
Alloy 20
BaCl2 Evap/Cryst
1 .200 kg/h evap,
Host alloy/Titanium
BaCla Vacuum Filter
3' Dia. x 4',
Alloy 20
BaCl2 Paddle Dryer
90 sq ft area,
Alloy 20
Na2S Reaction Tank
6' Dia. x 6', SS
HCI Storage Tanks (2)
12' Dia. x 16', Lined
NaOH Storage Tank
14' Dia. x 18'
BaCl2 Screen
2' Dia. Single Deck
BaCI 2 Silo
10' Dia x 20'
Appendix B
TYPICAL COST S
40,000
15,000 ea
270,000
30,000
150,000
15,000
38,000 ea
45,000
5,000
30,000
79
Appendix B
Barium Chemicals Plant Equipment
Major Items and Typical Costs (not installed)
4.
Barium Oxide/Hydroxide Plant
EQUIPMENT NAME
SIZE/CAPACITY
TYPICAL COST S
BaCOa Feeder
0.5 t/h
BaO Fluid Bed Reactor
c/w Fuel System, Cyclone
5' Dia. x 20', SS
300,000
BaO Paddle Cooler
65 sq ft area, SS
100,000
BaO Grinder
0.4 t/h, -1/8" to -10um
20,000
BaO Feeder
0.3 t/h
18,000
Ba(OH)2 Reaction
35 ftS/h Mixer, VesseISS
Ba(OH) 2 Drum Cooler A Flaker
0.5 t/h
40,000
Ba(OH) 2 Dryer
4' Dia. x 20', SS
80,000
Ba(OH)2 Screen
2' Dia. Single Deck
BaO Silo
8' Dia. x 18'
Ba(OH)2 Silos (2)
10' Dia. x 20'
80
20,000
120,000
5,000
24,000
30,000 ea
Barite and Fluorspar in Ontario
Appendix C
Fluorspar Mill Processing Equipment
Major Items and Typical Costs (not installed)
EQUIPMENT NAME
SIZE
TYPICAL COST S
Jaw Crusher
24" x 36"
100,000
Hammer Mill
1 0" x 20"
50,000
Jig Duplex
24" x 36"
20,000
Shaking Table
Full Size
16,000
Rod Mill, 100 HP
5' x 10'
Flotation Cells
18 @ 1.4 m 3
180,000
Flotation Cells
30 @ 0.7 m 3
210,000
Vacuum Filter
6' Dia. x 4 Disc.
* 50,000
Rotary Dryer
6' Dia. x 36'
* 250,000
Building
12 m x 30 m
70,000
*
* 70,000
Denotes used equipment price.
Appendix C
81